Family chosen for Bob Perry Lane House

Martha Dale and Patty Eisenhaur, co-chairs of the Mountain Towns Housing Project Steering Committee, announce that Kara Corlew and her two children have been selected to purchase the Bob Perry Lane House.

According to Dale, Corlew has served in the Army Reserves with the Engineers for 14 years and was deployed to Kuwait in 2021.

She teaches at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams in the radiology program, and works at the Carlos Otis Clinic at Stratton Mountain on a per diem basis.

The family is connected to the mountain community with the children’s grandparents Laurie and Scott Rawson close by along with their father, Mathew Rawson.

Corlew also volunteered with recovery and cleanup following the July floods, and organized her Army Reserve unit to help clear away destroyed pallets of wood pellets from the Stove Depot on Main Street in Londonderry. “She has put many hours of volunteer work into the construction of the Bob Perry Lane house, helping with sheetrock, painting and more,” Dale said. “The Corlew family is a perfect match for the house, the children will attend Flood Brook School, and will remain actively involved in our town for years to come.”

When notified that she and her family had been selected to buy the home, Corlew said, “I had a moment of disbelief until the reality set in that we would be able to stay in this area, close to our family.” She added that Rawsons have “such a close relationship with” grandchildren Isaiah, 8, and Eden, 6,  it’s wonderful that they “will be right around the corner … They are so involved in their lives and help out a lot with childcare.”

Corlew said her children are excited that each will have their own rooms to paint as they wish, “they’ll be able to ride their dirt bikes, we can have a garden and grow our own vegetables … we are so deeply grateful to all those who made this possible for us, the couple who donated the land, the donors who provided the funds, the volunteers who have helped build the house, and the local contractors who have donated their products and services; it truly is remarkable.”

The house was intended to go to a family of modest means, more commonly referred to as the “missing middle” – those who are working full time but are unable to afford the high real estate prices locally. Several families applied to purchase the house, and to qualify, certain salary requirements (80 to 120 percent of the area median income based on family size) had to be met along with a satisfactory credit rating, a connection to the local community and a commitment to investing “sweat equity” into the house. In partnership with the Windham and Windsor Housing Trust, the house will also remain affordable in perpetuity due to covenants and restrictions.

In addition to the couple who donated the land,  Mountain Towns Housing Project is grateful to over 156 individual donors, organizations, foundations and businesses who have made a gift in support of this project. This includes local contractors such as Hunter Excavating, Homestead Landscaping, Wadsworth Design Build, Frost Wells & Pumps, Record Concrete, Brown Enterprises, VT Foam Insulation, Marquise &  Morano, LLC, and Weston Island Logging. For a complete list of donors click here.

Once the house is completed and sold to the family, the MTHP will have funds to reinvest in another housing project, which could mean a house like the Bob Perry Lane home, building a duplex or rehabbing an existing home. The goal of MTHP is building a legacy organization that will continue to help provide affordable housing options well into the future.

Eisenhauer said that MTHP still needs financial donations to help with the finish work at the Bob Perry Lane house, including interior work and exterior clapboards and trim. “We still need to purchase all manner of construction supplies but we are confident we can get there as we have such a generous community that we know wants to see this home completed,” she said.

“Having selected a family puts real faces on the beneficiaries of this project,” Eisenhauer added. “We can’t wait until we can hand over the keys to the house to Kara and her family, and know that one family has stable and affordable housing and can continue to build roots in our community.”

If you would like to make a gift to support the Bob Perry Lane project you can:

• Make your check payable to: Mountain Towns Housing Project and mail it to P.O. Box 538, Londonderry, VT 05148.
• You also can make a gift online by clicking here.
• And you can also donate through the Community Fund for Londonderry; make your check payable to: Community Fund for Londonderry with “Perry Lane Project” in the memo line. Mail it to P.O. Box 399, Londonderry, VT 05148.
• And to volunteer to work on the site, click here to fill out the form or send an inquiry to mountaintownshousing@gmail.com.