SISTERS – When Robin Tawney, a 49-year-old single mom, steps through the door of her new Habitat for Humanity home next month, she’ll breathe a sigh of relief.

”If I didn’t have this, I would have moved out of Sisters,” she said. ”The cost of housing there is staggering,” she said.

Tawney, a manager at Garden of Eden gift shop in Sisters, and her daughter, Mikaela, who graduated from Sisters High School last spring, have spent the last two years living in a house with holes in the ceiling she could see the sky through. A woodstove is their source of heat.

It got so cold in her room, Tawney’s daughter spent the last two winters sleeping in the living room, her mother said.

But a roof over her head is worth the $600 per month she spends on the place, she said.

”I have mixed emotions. At least I had a place to rent, but I wouldn’t want anybody to have to live there,” she said.

Now, after hundreds of hours of volunteer work, her own home is a reality.

To be considered for a Habitat home, a family must earn less than 60 percent of the median income in Deschutes County, said Sharlene Weed, executive director of Sisters Habitat for Humanity.

As of January, the median income for a family of four in Deschutes County was $57,800, according to U.S. Housing and Urban Development numbers. That means a family of four must earn less than $34,680 to qualify for Habitat housing.

According to the Sisters comprehensive plan, approximately 32 percent of Sisters households live in housing that isn’t affordable to their income. The plan also states that a high percentage of people believe their homes are in poor condition.

Tawney said Sisters residents know the need exists for decent low-income housing, but many think it’s not their problem.

”It’s like we are invisible,” she said. ”We are the ones that wait on them, take their orders, but it never occurs to them that we have to live somewhere.”

According to census data, many low-income families are moving away from Sisters. Some of that is due to housing costs and low-paying jobs, said Cyndy Cook, executive director of Central Oregon Regional Housing Authority.

But Tawney thinks a part of it might be a frosty attitude toward low-income families.

Tawney said a neighbor recently told her if there wasn’t enough housing in Sisters for poor families, that they should all just move to Redmond. Then the city could bus them in to work, like they do at Black Butte Ranch.

”I was just amazed that people would think that, let alone say it out loud,” she said.

But the majority of people in Sisters don’t give her the cold shoulder, she said.

Her experience with Habitat has shown her how wonderful and giving many Sisters residents are.

”It has been such a blessing,” she said. ”You become part of this amazing huge family.”