Matching Fund Drive
To Benefit Fire Victims
By Sandy Vondrasek

Three months after their mobile home was destroyed by fire, Cristy Ward and Gene Lumbra Jr. and their five children are back in their old Mobile Acres neighborhood in West Braintree.

The family lost everything in the October 30 fire.

Thanks to a donated mobile home and the support of the non-profit Housing Finance, Inc. (HFI), which owns the park, the family of seven is now living in a larger, newer, and more energy-efficient home.

But they also have some significant debt, owed to HFI, for the costs related to the removal of their old home (for which they had no insurance), as well as the transport and set-up of their new home.

This week, HFI announced a 30-day drive, ending March 15, to assist the family. Funds donated by the community will be matched by HFI one-for two, with HFI forgiving $1 of the debt owed for every $2 raised locally, up to the approximately $10,000 owed.

Any funds received in excess of the debt will be applied to future rent payments for the family.

While donations will continue to be accepted after March 15, only donations received before then will be eligible for the one-for-two match.

According to Jane Paronto of the Vermont State Housing Authority (VSHA), HFI received a donation of two circa 1990 mobile homes around the time of the Lumbra-Ward fire. (VSHA manages Mobile Acres and other parks on behalf of HFI).

HFI gave one of those homes to the Ward-Lumbra family, and since the fire, HFI and VSHA have worked collaboratively to oversee the clean-up of the fire site and the logistics of transporting and hooking up the donated home.

The new home was delivered in December, after a two-week weather-related delay, and the family was able to move in earlier this year.

Paronto acknowledged that the happy circumstance of receiving the donated units led to the "extraordinary" effort HFI has made to get the family back into their own home.

According to another VSHA official, Susan Kugel, the donated home, worth $25,000, is "longer, wider and more energy-efficient" than the 1968 mobile home that burned. The family will have dramatically lower electric bills, she said, but HFI is requiring that the new home be insured.

Donations may be made payable to "The Housing Foundation, Inc." with "Lumbra/Ward" in the memo line, and sent directly to The Housing Foundation, Inc., 1 Prospect Street, Montpelier, 05602.