ECHO Village on Passion Play Road took another giant leap forward in affordable housing by building and dedicating the Christopher P. Epley Hospitality House (HH) last Sunday.
The building has a kitchen, a large living room and dining room for community activities including morning coffee, holidays meals, education and entertainment, and dorms for women and men upstairs. The dorms will be used for emergency housing for those who might have lost their home in a fire or other catastrophe.
Epley was only 32 when he died in a work-related accident in 2017. Suzie and Dan Bell, co-founders of the ECHO Clinic and the ECHO Village, knew and loved Chris from the time he was a boy. The Bells recommended that HH be named after Epley, whose nickname was Big Cat, and who had helped with construction work at the ECHO Clinic and was a supporter of ECHO efforts.
“This was just so, so personal for the Epley family,” Suzie Bell said. “When I proposed the idea to Charles and Janet, Charles said he was so afraid Christopher would be forgotten over time. Now he will not.”
Epley’s parents, his widow, Ashlee and sons, Crosby, 10, and Clark, 6, and his sister, Jennifer, and brother, Curtis, were present at the event and unveiled a plaque honoring Chris. Epley’s uncles Lewis and Alan were also at the event.
Community interaction with the residents of the 15 small homes at ECHO Village has always been a part of the plan for the village. Bell said it is common for people in poverty to have had poverty in relationships. Encouraging people to feel a sense of belonging and part of a loving community has been a major goal.
Currently the residents meet at 9 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to have coffee. The HH is also a place for people to gather to watch a movie or for classes. For example, Writers’ Colony board member Tricia Evans wants to teach journaling as healing classes there.
“This is the kind of thing we want and having this Hospitality House allows that to happen,” Bell said. “There is now a place for them to come when they need to meet with someone. This is really exciting. It is a game changer.”
About 100 people attended the open house that included burgers, brats and beer.
“It was very well attended,” Bell said. “Afterward Dan and I were getting ready to clean up when the residents came and took over the cleanup. It was community. It was a team effort. It was just a beautiful thing to see. One said, ‘I just want you to know how important it is to me to be part of this community.’ We went home and left it to them. I felt like we have been successful in not only providing good homes for people who don’t have them but fostering a sense of community and belonging that everyone needs.”
Tanya Waltman, resident manager, said the village has a diversity of residents who look after each other. For example, a house designated for a veteran was built recently, and the vet who lives there helps people around the neighborhood with chores. One resident has been growing food for herself and others in the community greenhouse. The community also has chickens.
“We come together for breakfasts, and make sure that everyone has food,” Waltman said. “The people who live here come from diverse backgrounds. There are elders and young people with children. It helps the feeling of the community to have children.”
Bell said at the open house that it was a “heavy lift” to build a house that was initially estimated to cost $270,000. The ECHO board wondered if it could be done.
“Then God answered our prayers and The Nature Conservancy donated an entire 4,000-square-foot house and contents in a very rural area of Madison County near the Kings River,” Bell said. “We were able to repurpose its roof, rafters and other lumber, the heating and air system, the front door, lamps, windows, pictures and much more. It was an extensive project moving all that down a rugged dirt road out in the middle of nowhere.”
Volunteers built the home that was designed pro bono by architect and mayor, Butch Berry. Bell said some of the many people who helped included Tom Odom, “the everything guy,” referred to as their carpenter Einstein. Cheryl Rutledge provided assistance with fine carpentry skills. Dee Rude helped with anything that needed to be done, including painting and installing trim pieces.
“Two volunteer construction professionals, Al Larson and Bob Christian, were instrumental in keeping us straight and guiding us on how to do things well,” she said. “They would also come and help do the work. Chuck Welch is another skilled carpenter who came and did whatever we asked of him. Jean Reed volunteered many days painting, installing blinds and doing whatever else was asked of her. Mickey Box would do whatever you asked, to frame a door or install cabinets, and was known as the project comedian. Mike Reed helped with construction.”
The Nature Conservancy, which donated the house in order to return the land to nature, paid for a contractor to help disassemble the home.
ECHO plans to build another 11 homes at the village to reach a total of 26.
What’s been done here is so impressive and could serve as a model for communities throughout the nation. I’m so grateful for the work the Bells, other volunteers, the Nature Conservancy and others provided to make this a reality.