ECHO closes its doors
By Bobbi Mlynar
Originally published 02:11 p.m., October 2, 2007
Updated 02:11 p.m., October 2, 2007
The Emporia Community Housing Organization is disbanding after seven years of rehabilitating old homes and constructing new ones.
ECHO board member Denise L. Gilligan announced this morning that the organization will cease to exist on Dec. 31.
The organization was created through the City of Emporia to provide affordable homes for low-income families, and became an independent nonprofit group several years after its inception. Gilligan said that changes in state and federal grants, as well as lack of financing from other sources, were some of the issues that precipitated the decision.
ECHO currently owns four properties, Gilligan said. Three of them were new construction and the fourth is a house that was rehabilitated.
The board does not yet know what will happen to those houses, which may have involved several governmental agencies in building, repairing or renting them.
“There will be more information about how the business affairs will be handled once we have contacted the appropriate agencies,” she said. “There will be a lot of business affairs that will need to be conducted.
“The decision to dissolve ECHO was not one that was made lightly and the board of directors is committed to seeing it through to completion,” she said.
More information will be released as it becomes available.