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Pasco Letters to the Editor

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 30, 2008

In Search Of Families

If your family is in need of affordable housing, Habitat for Humanity of Central Pasco County may have the solution to your problem.

If your income is between $20,000 and $34,000 for a family of four, and you are willing to contribute 400 hours of work on your Habitat home or others, Habitat, a nonprofit ecumenical Christian housing organization, invites you to attend a meeting on June 21 (a Saturday) from 10 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. at the Land O' Lakes Library, 2818 Collier Parkway (34639).

The purpose is to explain our program and walk applicants through the application form, which can be completed at this meeting. All applicants must bring required documents. The list of documents can be found at http://hfhofcentralpasco .org/.

All adult members of the applicant household must attend. They will need an original photo ID, original Social Security card and photographed copies of both.

All sources of income must be verified. Please have a copy of your two most recent pay stubs and a copy of your 2007, if available, or 2006 income tax returns.

Benefit letters from all other sources of income - Social Security, SSI Disability, AFDC, pensions or retirement funds, etc. - also are needed. Child support and alimony payments must be verified with a court order or other legal documentation showing monthly payment amounts. Please bring a photocopy of these documents.

Copies of Social Security cards for all children who will be living in the house with you or birth certificates for those under 2 years of age are required. If divorced, a copy of the divorce decree so that the ex-spouse's income will not be considered.

We also require the names, phone numbers and addresses of your two previous employers, two previous landlords and your bank. Also, bring a copy of your lease or two canceled rent checks or rent receipts, and copies of the last two months' electric bill, phone bill and any other utility bill (water, cable, etc.)

You also must bring a nonrefundable $25 application fee in the form of a money order. This fee is waived for applicants applying a second time. The fee covers our cost of pulling a credit report. Cash will not be accepted.

Once your application has been reviewed and the required qualifications have been met, you will be contacted so we may arrange a home interview. In addition, if your application is accepted for consideration, you and your (adult) family members will be required to volunteer a Saturday at a Habitat for Humanity construction site so you may get a feel for what working on a Habitat house entails and what being a part of a Habitat community is like.

If you will be attending the meeting, please RSVP at http://hfhofcentralpasco .org/ so we know to expect you. Due to the large number of people we expect to attend this meeting, we will not be able to accommodate children. Please make arrangements for child care.

The family must demonstrate a willingness to partner with Habitat. These factors include a cash down payment, monthly payments and a willingness to provide required "sweat equity" (400 hours). Family members also must agree to attend family support meetings.

CHARLIE REESE

Lutz

25 Years Of Service

This month, Sertoma Speech and Hearing Foundation of FL Inc. has been celebrating the 25th anniversary of the grand opening of the original Sertoma Speech-Language-Hearing Center on Trouble Creek Road. It has been an honor to serve all the hard-of-hearing children and adults in Pasco County for 25 years.

The West Pasco Sertoma club formed this organization because they saw a great need for these services in Pasco County. They negotiated an arrangement with All Children's Hospital to bring their vision to reality.

The arrangement included a major financial commitment to cover all expenses and operating costs until the project was self-sufficient. This was a major financial commitment for the benefit of the people of Pasco County.

In the early to mid-1990s, All Children's decided they wanted to expand their presence in Pasco, and they opened the first All Children's Specialty Care Center on Main Street in New Port Richey in 1995. All the services provided at the original location were moved to the new facility.

The Sertoma Speech-Language-Hearing Center became part of that larger operation and in 2003 moved to All Children's Specialty Care of Pasco's new location on Rowan Road. Sertoma Speech and Hearing Foundation maintains offices within the outreach facility and continues to provide serves to the hard-of-hearing community.

Through the years, the Sertoma Foundation's focus has changed from only providing services in Pasco to the current status of providing hearing aids and hearing-related services to children throughout the state - through the Children's Hearing Help Fund - and to senior citizens in the Tampa Bay area.

The Children's Hearing Help Fund is supported through the voluntary check-off on driver's licenses and motor vehicle registrations and renewals.

We would like to thank the West Pasco Sertoma Club for forming this foundation 25 years ago and for their ongoing financial support with funds raised at the Chasco Fiesta barbecue and the Fall Fest.

We also would like to thank everyone who has supported our organization through the years with their time, in-kind and cash contributions, support of our fundraising events and used hearing aid donations, as well as remembering us in their wills and trusts.

CRAIG McCART

New Port Richey

The writer is a member of the Habitat for Humanity of Central Pasco County's board of directors. The writer is the executive director of Sertoma Speech and Hearing Foundation of FL Inc.

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