After a lengthy selection process Routt County Habitat for Humanity's board has just approved the Gaerlan and Kelly families as partners on construction of a new duplex starting this fall in Steamboat’s Riverside neighborhood.

“These two families are exactly the kind of people Steamboat cannot afford to lose because of high housing costs, which still very much threaten people working essential, but low-wage jobs,” said Bud Romberg,  Habitat board president.

Each family will put in 350 hours of volunteer labor for Habitat over the course of the next year,  each will make a down payment and pay a monthly zero-equivalent mortgage on the home to Habitat over 30 years. Those payments go into the "Fund for Humanity" to support future Habitat builds. 

Renee (Patterson) Gaerlan (shown above left) was born and raised in Steamboat and married Terry (not pictured), who enlisted in the Navy last December. Terry is stationed in Virginia and is set to be deployed to Bahrain in November for six months working on Blackhawk humanitarian missions around the globe.

"We are faced with hardships we never imagined and we are so grateful to be in this community,” says Renee. “This shows how hard work and a little faith can go a long way.”

Renee has been a fire prevention specialist with the city of Steamboat and also works for them seasonally as a CSO. She has spent years as a dedicated Boys & Girls Club volunteer in both Steamboat and Los Angeles.  

Kathryn (Kat) Kelly (shown above right) has two boys ages 14 and 16 at Steamboat High school who are eager to get to work on building their own home. Kat moved to Steamboat four years ago and has worked full time at the city planning office for the past 3 1/2 years. She is a Little League umpire and past president of the Steamboat Springs Little League Association, and current District Administrator for Colorado District 3 Little League which encompasses most of NW Colorado putting in countless hours there as a volunteer.

"It's going to feel great that we never have to move again- that we're finally really home," said Kat, adding that they've moved 4 times over their 4 years in Steamboat, first from a moldy trailer and once when landlords lost their home and needed to move into the home they were renting. Both families are paying well over 50% of their incomes in rent and both face searching for a new home if their landlords make good on plans to move back to Steamboat.