Snake River Housing Inc.
Snake River Housing Inc., an affiliate organization of Broetje Orchards, was created to manage the community of Vista Hermosa founded by Ralph & Cheryl Broetje in 1990.
Vista Hermosa, or “Beautiful View,” is comprised of 133 single-family homes and garden apartments, a chapel, preschool, elementary school, post office, laundry facilities, market, gymnasium, soccer field, playground, and garden plots. Approximately 600 individuals live in the community—over half being children 18 years or younger.
Snake River Housing seeks to provide families affordable shelter while pursuing its larger vision of improving residents? general welfare. It accomplishes this by providing Broetje Orchard families with:
- Affordable housing to allow families to save money and take care of themselves. Rents never exceed 30% of a dual-earner family’s gross monthly income and are approx. 30% lower than comparable housing in Pasco, WA and Walla Walla, WA areas.
- Education classes (like financial literacy and ESL) and health services (like dental clinics and WIC programming) that give families control of their mental and physical development.
- Youth development opportunities—leadership classes and programming as well as academic assistance (tutoring, computer lab, college prepatory programming, etc.)
- Pathways for families to become 1st time home-owners—families with assets have a greater stake in seeing a future for themselves and have greater means to accomplish their goals.
Snake River Housing also owns and manages the Orchard View Market, which provides the residents affordable, basic-needs commodities that they would otherwise have to find 30 to 45 minutes away. The store has a twofold purpose: efficiency and community service. It seeks to be a break-even entity and a well executed example of a basic retail store. As such, the store is continually looking towards the most effective balance between operational expenses/revenue and providing the most affordable goods and services for our community.
Funding for Snake River Housing Inc. operations and education programs comes primarily from housing rental payments and Orchardview Market revenue. The organization partners with numerous regional programs to further serve community members.
