'Dreams can come true': Local family gets the keys for Eugene 4J Future Build home

After years of planning and months of building, the first student-built Future Build home has been completed and a local family has been handed the keys.

Eugene School District 4J's Future Build program allows high school juniors and seniors from around the district to participate in a career technical education course with hands-on construction. The students were able to complete a house for a local low-income family under the guidance of 4J staff and construction professionals.

The 1,800-square-foot, three-bedroom house will be owned by a family of five. It has all new appliances, a garage and a fully fenced yard. Last week, the district held an unveiling event to welcome the family home.

Although the students, most of whom graduated in spring, became more than well-acquainted with the home itself, none had met the family who would be living in it.

"It just made it feel a lot more real," said Evan Walklin, a senior at South Eugene High who participated in the Future Build class last year and this year. "There's the satisfaction along the whole way, by just being there. But this is the end goal here."

Along with district officials and others involved in the project, four Future Build students attended the unveiling. This was also the first time the students had seen the completed house with landscaping and other finishing touches.

Peter Wiebe, a 4J teacher with Future Build, became emotional, saying this home is going to change the lives for a family, and the students get to be a part of that.

"I'm really hoping they get a real sense (of) this tangible thing that they participated in," Wiebe said. "I spend a lot of my career telling people that teenagers are amazing, complex, fully developed, well mostly developed, human beings. They have a lot of empathy, and they don't get credit for it.

"I expect them to really get a sense of closure (today)."

Dreams coming true

Heron Maya Ruiz, Margarita Vasquez Cruz and their three children, ages 11, 9 and 8, will officially move in later this month. The five-member family immigrated from Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2007 and have been renting in different locations around Eugene and Springfield.

On Thursday, they were feeling excited and a little nervous.

"We're so excited, because thanks to them, we have a really new house," Vasquez Cruz said, adding it was beautiful.

Owning their own home had been a dream, but seemed impossible due to home prices in the area.

4J worked with DevNW, a local nonprofit that works to provide housing resources and community guidance. Maya Ruiz and Vasquez Cruz had already been working with DevNW before Future Build, finding their services through Head Start of Lane County.

They were selected through an application process. All those who met the requirements were put into a random drawing, and Maya Ruiz and Vasquez Cruz were selected.

Since then, they have been doing additional finance and home buying classes through DevNW to help prepare them to be homeowners. They have also been doing one-on-one consultations, received assistance and qualified for a mortgage. DevNW also provided them up to $60,000 for a down payment, which is part of their program for first generation homeowners.

"I don't think I have any words," Vasquez Cruz said in Spanish.

Currently, their children attended Hamlin Middle School and Guy Lee Elementary School in Springfield, but will likely be switching over to 4J schools soon. They said their children are going to be excited once they find out they'll be going to schools in the same district that had a helping hand in providing them their home.

Their children were in school during the reveal and weren't able to attend, but the family had visited the home the week prior, while final touches were still underway. The youngsters explored the new house and discussed who would get which room, with their 11-year old getting their own room for the first time.

Vasquez Cruz said she was especially excited to have a backyard, which they've never had before. Their children are active and like playing soccer. In their new home, they can run around the entire house. Vasquez Cruz said she's looking forward to putting in a trampoline that they've had for months but no place to set up.

"We see that dreams can come true," Vasquez Cruz said. "We always thought it was an illusion, we never thought it was real, but it is real."

Learning on the job

About 25 Future Build students worked to complete the house last semester, finishing much of the project with the guidance of teachers and collaboration with general contractor Meili Construction of Eugene.

However, Future Build is still ongoing. 4J acquired a second plot of land on Park Avenue, kitty-corner from the first home that has yet to start construction. Career and technical education teacher Wheylin Niehus said that project is currently on hold as they develop plans to make the build more financially sustainable to keep the project going. Currently, Future Build is working on tiny homes through Everyone Villages and Square One.

For the fall term, Wiebe said they have expanded their class, now with 40 students. Not only are they expanding in numbers, but also in diversity. Last year, the class had one girl, but this year, Wiebe said they have more than 10, as well as a few nonbinary students.

"I look and I see a relatively diverse classroom, we are always interested in a much broader selection of demographics, whether it's gender, or color, or orientation, or what have you," Wiebe said. "We are doing our best to make an inclusive environment for all of them. Just having that many young women involved in the program has already sort of changed the perspective."

Walklin, who was one of two students who were able to continue the Future Build class from last year, said diversifying the class has been positive.

"(Last year) was a really good team environment, but I feel just the more lived experiences and perspectives that you bring to the table, the more you get out of a team as a whole," Walklin said. "That's been a really valuable part this year."

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Local family become homeowners of Eugene 4J Future Build house