WEST POINT — Members of the West Point Rotary Club were given an update on the Chattahoochee Fuller Center by its current president, Curt Johnson.

During the presentation, the excited Johnson gave a brief overview of the history behind the local chapter of the Fuller Center, noting that his parents were some of the most vocal voices in getting the group started.

Johnson said his mother asked him  to help get some paperwork for the group done, later mentioning that he was named vice president.

When discussing how the Fuller Center operates, Johnson specifically noted that they do not give out homes to people. Instead, new residents are put on a payment plan where they have to meet certain requirements and failure to do so results in ejection from the home.

“If they don’t do one of those things they go,” he said. “It’s just that simple.”

If a resident makes 12 payments on time and in a row, they can become a homeowner.

“We lose about one out of every five tenants in that probation period,” he said.

The process for picking home candidates is a lengthy one and the Center gets more candidates every year and not everyone meets the criteria.

“In that first year we built 17 houses,” Johnson said. “But in 2015 we built one house.”

How the Center operates involves three sources of income: a reuse store in Lanett, the house payments from tenants and donations.

“The way we have it right now, the store and the house payments will cover all of our overhead and we can build about one house out of that,” Johnson said. “Every dollar we get that is donated goes to a house or a construction process.”

He noted that they are looking at moving the store with the end goal being the store takes care of all the overhead.

“That’s where we’re trying to get to,” Johnson said.

In January 2007, the Chattahoochee Fuller Center Project (CFCP) was formed with the ambitious goal of building affordable housing and changing neighborhoods in the Greater Valley Area.