Housing Hub Opens New Office in Tracy City, Hires New Leadership
Affordable Homes | Homeowner Education | Workforce Development
Originally established as an information clearing house for aspiring homeowners, Housing Hub has quickly evolved into an organization dedicated to:
Building affordable homes on the South Cumberland Plateau;
Preparing future and current homeowners to buy and maintain homes; and
Developing a sustainable local workforce in the construction trades.
This transition to a broader mission was made possible by generous donors, the support of the South Cumberland Community Fund, and the hiring of outstanding leadership talent.
The New Leadership Team
Julie Keel, Executive Director
On August 1, Julie Keel took the helm as Executive Director of Housing Hub. Julie has made Grundy County, TN, her home for the past 17 years serving in various capacities with Mountain T.O.P., a housing nonprofit focused on housing restoration and repair.
During her tenure at Mountain T.O.P., Julie connected the non-profit with other social service agencies, collaborating on a wide variety of housing-related projects, and secured housing resources for its service area.
Julie is certified as a USDA 502 loan packager and in Nonprofit Leadership from the Center for Nonprofit Management. She also has a Doctor of Ministry in Organizational Leadership. The inspiring people and places in the South Cumberland area of Appalachia fuel her passion for the intersection of housing affordability and community development. Housing Hub is grateful to have Julie’s passion and experience in the Plateau community to implement our important mission.
Cody Jorstad, Director of Housing Development
Cody Jorstad joined Housing Hub on June 3, and also brings experience and commitment in his new role as Director of Housing Development. When Cody first came to Mountain T.O.P with his church youth group, little did he realize some 15 years later he’d return as the Director of Housing Development for the newly created Housing Hub. A Georgia native, Cody grew up outside of Atlanta and graduated from Georgia Tech in 2017 with a degree in civil engineering.
After college, Cody worked full-time with Mountain T.O.P. supervising construction projects and teams of volunteers. Cody gained experience as a construction manager for a large-scale homebuilder, the Pulte Group, in Nashville while his wife, Rachael, who he met at Mountain T.O.P., attended Vanderbilt’s graduate program.
Though Cody’s initial focus is finishing the construction of Blessing House, his purpose is to lay the groundwork for our ongoing mission of building affordable homes on the plateau and mentoring the next-generation workforce in the construction trades.
Housing Hub’s Evolution
Though the South Cumberland region is desirable for people to prosper, the lack of affordable housing presents a significant barrier for many community members, particularly those at the lowest income levels.
A group of non-profits, including Mountain T.O.P., Better Fi, Housing Sewanee, green|spaces, and the South Cumberland Learning and Development Center, gathered around the complex issue of developing robust, cross-sector solutions to address substandard housing in Grundy, Marion, and Franklin counties in Tennessee.
Housing Hub was formed in 2022 as a central repository of information for those needing affordable housing, funded by a grant from the South Cumberland Community Fund (SCCF). The group learned that accessible information alone was not enough to increase the availability of affordable housing.
A Housing Working Group facilitated by SCCF’s Community Development Committee led to the creation of the current Housing Hub with its newly expanded vision.
Housing Hub’s Three-Part Mission
Housing Hub’s expanded vision encompasses a three-part mission to connect communities to safe, healthy, and affordable housing:
Building affordable homes on the South Cumberland Plateau;
Preparing future and current homeowners to buy and maintain homes by offering mentoring and co-navigation support to achieve mortgage eligibility and homeowner readiness; and
Developing a sustainable local workforce in the construction trades by partnering with the Industrial Arts Program at Grundy County High School and Tim Tucker’s Architecture and Carpentry Class, and the American Job Center (at the Littell-Partin Center) to ensure continued support for skill development and licensure.
Partnering with Grundy County High School Industrial Arts Program to Build Our First Home
Blessing House
Grundy County High School teacher, Tim Tucker, always dreamed his residential construction students would one day build a house.
Housing Hub engaged in an innovative collaboration between Mountain T.O.P. and Communities in Schools, to make that happen. What’s even better is that the house, aptly named Blessing House, will provide affordable housing in Coalmont, TN for a 37-year-old single mom and her teenage son.
In the fall of 2023, Tucker’s students began working on a two-bedroom, one-bath home with students excited and proud to be learning while creating a home for a local family. Building materials that allowed students to build skills and construction knowledge were provided by Tennessee’s Colleges of Applied Technology (TCAT) due to the High School’s dual enrollment opportunities with TCAT. The other costs were shored up by a fund for new-build construction made possible by a challenge gift to Mountain T.O.P. and courageous supporters of this new non-profit adventure, Housing Hub.
By the end of the fall semester in 2023, Tucker and his students built the first half of Blessing House at Grundy County High School. As the full-time Director of Housing Development, Cody Jorstad will initially focus on finishing the homebuilding project started by Tucker’s residential construction students. The students have already framed up wall sections and pre-cut some of the material. Cody and Tucker, along with volunteers, will continue to work on Blessing House with plans to complete the build by the end of the year.
Clearing the Path to Mortgage Eligibility for Aspiring Homeowners
A key mission of Housing Hub is to prepare future homeowners to buy and maintain homes by offering mentoring and co-navigation support to mortgage eligibility and homeowner readiness.
This journey is a highly individualized one with some barriers to overcome. For example, access to low interest or zero down payment mortgages requires a strong credit score. Sometimes loan officers need to be convinced of the stability of income for those working multiple part-time jobs or working for themselves. That’s what makes these journeys so unique for each aspiring homeowner.
Housing Hub has developed a step-by-step process that aspiring homeowners will navigate in partnership with an experienced Housing Hub guide. Executive Director Julie Keel has 17 years of experience in this area. She is also training additional, future volunteers to increase the scale of Housing Hub’s ability to co-navigate this process for every homeowner.
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