Welcome to the Housing Hotline. This site was created as a result of a need for a source of rental properties. As a new comer to my community in the late 80's. I found myself going to different real estate companies, searching the local newspaper, and driving neighborhoods, in search of a place to call home for myself, my wife, and 8 month old son. While staying in a motel for several days I soon realized what a difficult task it was to find a home. The experience of moving to a new community along with trying to get settled in a place to live was a difficult transition for my family and after getting into the real estate soon afterwards I was able to sympathize with families moving into town who found themselves in the same situation as I was in. This issue always bothered me but I didn’t know what to do about it. The answer came during a crisis in our community.
In 1996 our community was hit with a tornado that left approximately 800 families homeless over night. The phone calls started to pour into all the area real estate companies for temporary housing, this is where the Housing Hotline began. The idea came to me to mobilize the entire Real Estate community in an effort to funnel all the available rental properties to one specific location. The idea was brought before the Realtors who were eager to help. The concept was simple. The local Realtors would take turns manning a telephone hotline that was set up at the local Board of Realtors office. Two cell phones were donated and a rotation of two man teams of Realtors would handle all the incoming calls. Various committees were formed to tackle the task. One committee, that included our board president and vice president, would go on a community wide appeal to stress the need for housing. Through television appearances, radio psa’s and newspaper advertisement, the word soon got out of our sudden housing crisis and an urgent plea was made to the public to call the hotline to offer their available properties. Soon an inventory was created and all the calls previously to the Realtors could now be directed to the hotline. The people that were tornado victims now had a place to go to receive a list of available properties. Because of the efforts of the Realtors along with the community, approximately 700 properties were generated to provide housing for the tornado victims. The hotline was a was once again used later that year when the eastern portion of our state was hit with a tornado. The Arkansas Realtors Association was contacted and a presentation was given to the board associations in that area. As a result another hotline was formed and with the cooperation of the Realtors, and the local community, the tornado victims in those areas were able to obtain housing.
Our hope is that this site will provide a service to the community. To compile a comprehensive inventory by mobilizing and organizing the efforts of Realtors, landlords, and property owners and to make this inventory available to the public at no cost.