Board AND Homeowner Stories: Meet Ava Wellington, Board Chair
“It’s a quiet, reserved community, with many ‘wiser’ residents,” says Ava Wellington of her Meadowmont neighborhood, Greenway. “It’s prime real estate!”
Ava has owned her Community Home Trust home since she moved to North Carolina from California in 2015. That very same year, she was invited to join the CHT Board of Directors as a homeowner representative, and this year, she is taking a turn as board chair. As a longtime CHT homeowner and board member, Ava hopes that over the course of her year in the leadership position, she can bring a balanced perspective to the work. She says that like any aspect of life, finding that balance means looking at “what’s in between, to be fair,” thinking about how her dual roles of homeowner and board member overlap and diverge. She says that being a homeowner definitely helps her “put on the shoes” of board leadership because of her ability to bring both of those perspectives.
As for her goals for the year, Ava shares that she’s most interested in helping us move forward with our mission, helping more individuals and families move into homeownership. That requires thinking creatively about the work. She also wants to make sure board and staff members get to know each other better and have open lines of communication. She wants to ensure that our shared culture has the feeling of “home.”
Personally, Ava says that her homeownership journey was at times scary and overwhelming, which is why she’s focused on making sure we’re serving and supporting our future homeowners as best we can. Ava is a preschool educator who shares her home with her husband and almost-three year old son – a big life change from when she moved into her home on Valentine’s Day eight years ago. So although she thought it might be her forever home when she first moved in, she now knows that her family will outgrow it eventually. That’s one bit of advice she has for people who might be considering becoming a CHT homeowner: think about your plans, how long you will live in the area, and how your life might change and grow. Answering those questions can help you determine if homeownership through CHT is the right step for you at the time. She says that for her, especially during the pandemic, homeownership has meant stability: “Absolutely! When you own a home, you have options and wiggle room that you don’t have as a renter.”
