BOONE, Iowa—A longtime resident of Boone and member of Genesis Development has closed on his first home which had only before been a dream.

Chris Ivers has been a member of Genesis Development for over 20 years. For the last several years, Ivers has said that he would like to rent a house instead of an apartment. Throughout the years, it never worked out. It was always a matter of timing or money.

In the spring of 2017, Ivers was informed that he would be receiving an inheritance from a family member. The instructions stated that Ivers’ inheritance needed to be figured out among the family before any other family member could receive their inheritance. A month later, Ivers was told that nearly all of the money was already spent on items that Ivers “needed.”

Genesis Development staff asked Ivers what he really wanted to be done with his inheritance and he said that he would like to buy a house. Genesis Development contacted the lawyer to find the executor of Ivers’ inheritance. They were given a rundown of the items that were purchased. Ivers and the staff at Genesis Development went about trying to get the inheritance back. After nearly all of his inheritance was recovered, Ivers had to set up an IAble account to hold the money. Ivers is a recipient of MPED (Medicaid for Employed People with Disabilities) which has a limit on the amount of money that can be kept in accounts. An IAble account (Achieving a Better Life Experience) allows people with disabilities to save for specific purposes and not risk losing assistance from other programs.

After the inheritance was secured and taken care of, it was discovered that Ivers could not get approved for a home loan as he had no credit. Tracy Van Sickle of People’s Bank in Ogden guided Ivers toward some credit cards for which he may be eligible. Ivers received a credit card and began to use it to purchase food and gas and then pay it off at the end of each month.

In February of 2018, Van Sickle let Ivers know that he had finally built up enough credit to apply for a home loan. Ivers was pre-approved for a loan and chose a realtor, Amber Hora with Nerem & Associates in Boone to begin looking at homes that included his must-haves (two bedrooms and a garage). A couple months went by and Ivers was not able to find “the one” house that he had always wanted. Then Hora called with an opportunity to look at a house that was being sold “as is.” Ivers went to see the house and knew that it was the one for him! Ivers made his offer and, within four hours, the offer was accepted and the seller even agreed to fix the broken garage door.

Ivers closed on his home on June 15th, 2018.

To learn more about Medicaid for Employed People with Disabilities (MEPD), go to www.dhs.iowa.gov. To learn more about IAble, go to www.iable.gov. To learn more about Genesis Development and it’s services, got to www.genesisdevelopment.com.

Chris Ivers with Amber Hora

(contributed article and photo, Genesis Development)