Reuse, recycle, ReStore: Habitat discount retail store to open Aug. 2

SANDPOINT - Idaho Panhandle Habitat for Humanity has taken the next step in the evolution of the organization, a move that will allow the non-profit group to double the number of homes it builds each year for lower-income families.

On Aug. 2, the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International will open its ReStore in a 6,500-square-foot building behind Panhandle Special Needs, Inc., at 1424 North Boyer.

The store will sell new and used building materials such as doors, windows, flooring, lumber, cabinets, countertops, plumbing and electrical supplies, lighting fixtures, tools, paint, appliances and furniture at 25-50 percent of retail cost.

After its second year in Sandpoint, the ReStore is expected to net about $60,000, according to Don Hanset, treasurer for the local affiliate.

“Which will get us to that second home,” he said, adding that the affiliate has averaged about one home per year over the past decade.

There are now 10 Habitat for Humanity homes in Bonner County, with the 11th under construction at Schissler Meadows - a 5-acre, 15-lot parcel in Kootenai named in honor of Mike Schissler, one of the original founders of the local affiliate whose vision and energy drove its progress before he passed away.

When the organization was formed here in 1991, land prices were less than half what they average today. The first few homes were built on lots priced at about $12,000, Hanset said. The land price for more recent homes has climbed to $25,000.

Building a larger number of homes will mean that Schissler Meadows reaches capacity not too many years down the road. To get in front of escalating property costs, Idaho Panhandle Habitat for Humanity purchased a 7-acre lot north of the Kootenai Cut-off Road in late 2006.

“We wanted to look into the future instead of waiting until we used our last lot and then looking around and saying, ‘Now what are we going to do?'” the treasurer said.

There already are two families lined up for the next couple of Habitat homes on the schedule. Working alongside local volunteers, they each will invest between 300-500 hours of “sweat equity” to help build the home that is before them in the queue, as well as their own dwelling. Once inside the new home, families pay an average of about $300 per month, which generates a little more than $35,000-a-year from current Habitat homeowners.

The search for additional funding led the affiliate to the ReStore concept. At present, the U.S. has about 450 such stores, with approximately another 50 in Canada. Regionally, ReStore locations are operating in both Spokane and Hayden. The stores tend to do well, with about 50 percent of gross sales hitting the profit line.

“People who buy things from a ReStore are looking for bargains - they're people who normally would be going to a yard sale or looking in the Nickel's Worth,” said Hanset.

Materials such as framing lumber that was the wrong dimension, or items like hot tubs and appliances that were difficult for the affiliate to deal until now will be welcome at the ReStore.

Beyond raising money for more homes, the store will create two or three new jobs and re-route unwanted items out of the waste stream and back into good use, the treasurer explained.

“For every dollar of sales we have, we avoid one pound of materials from going into the landfill,” he said.

“Think of us as one giant recycling center,” said William Kopiecki, manager for the ReStore. “We emphasize the donation of building materials, but we can take everything. People can clean out that old barn or garage, drop the items off here and then we'll distribute what we can't use to thrift stores in the area.”

The manager sees the new store as both a source of funding for the organization's building projects and a resource center for Habitat applications and information.

“My interest has been to raise the public profile of Habitat for Humanity - we've got a listing in the phone book, a physical address and we had a float in the Fourth of July parade,” said Kopiecki, a former contractor who served as a board member before being selected as ReStore manager.

“My vision is that the store will be a magnet for more donors and volunteers and that, because of the visibility, people of means will begin to adopt Habitat as their own cause,” he added.

Until then, the affiliate plans to keep taking one small step at a time by raising money from the sale of donated goods. With the Aug. 2 deadline approaching, volunteers are at work to finish the interior shell of the store, but it still lacks much of the hardware that will be necessary to display merchandise.

“We're going to need a lot of shelving, pallets and carts, so we've been kind of going around with a tin cup in our hand saying, ‘Can you help us out?'” Hanset said.

It's a familiar drill for the people behind the Habitat homes built locally. And although ReStore profits will accelerate the construction schedule, there may always be more families waiting for housing than there are homes to go around, according to Hanset.

“It's kind of daunting, because we realize we'll probably never solve the affordable housing problem in Sandpoint through Habitat,” he said.

“But we're the ones out there working on it,” Kopiecki said. “Considering the emphasis on affordable housing and workforce housing, the ReStore can be one of the resources to make that happen.”

Donations to the local ReStore are tax-deductible and may be dropped off at the North Boyer site on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Donors can also arrange for items to be picked up. For information: 265-5313 or visit www.iphfh.org