From Strings to Strength:
How Jeremy Haney is Building a New Life, One Note and One Nail at a Time
HINDMAN, Ky. (Nov. 17, 2025) – When luthier Jeremy Haney builds a mandolin, he starts with raw wood – rough, unshaped, and full of potential. With patience, care, and faith, he works piece by piece until the wood sings.
His life has followed much the same rhythm.
Jeremy, who will soon move into his new home at Chestnut Ridge, has spent years rebuilding – first from addiction, then from disaster. A survivor of both the 2012 Morgan County tornado and the catastrophic 2022 flood in Knott County, Kentucky, he knows what it means to start again with almost nothing but determination and faith.
“I felt like all hope was lost,” Jeremy said, remembering the morning after the 2022 flood. “I’d put all of my time and effort into making a home, and now everything had been taken away. But I was very fortunate to have friends in recovery and people I worked with who helped me get back on my feet.”
Jeremy’s rental home in Frogtown (a neighborhood near downtown Hindman) had been destroyed that night. By grace, he wasn’t there – the air conditioning was out, and he’d chosen to stay at Hickory Hill Recovery Center, where he’d completed treatment for substance use disorder in 2019.
Three years into recovery at the time, the flood could have been a breaking point. Instead, Jeremy stayed grounded in the same verse that has guided him since his first days of sobriety – one he now writes inside every mandolin he builds: “Be still and know that I am (God).”
“After the flood, that verse meant everything,” he said. “As bad as I wanted to run, I stayed still. I stayed with my friends at Hickory Hill and focused on what I had instead of what I’d lost. That’s what got me through.”
Jeremy returned to the instrument shop where he works, helping shovel mud, clean instruments, and rebuild the space by hand – the same way he was rebuilding his own life.
It was around that time that Jeremy reached out to the Housing Development Alliance (HDA). He’d heard of the organization from other men at Hickory Hill – some of whom had worked for HDA, others who’d become homeowners through its programs.
“I knew they were doing good work,” he said. “After the flood, it became even more evident how much they were helping the community, so I contacted them about building a house.”
At first, Jeremy hesitated. “I dragged my feet,” he admits. “I’d always lived in a hollow, and I didn’t want to live too close to other people. But when I heard about Chestnut Ridge and the opportunity to have a home in a nice community with safe places for kids, I knew that’s what was right for us.”
Now, just before Thanksgiving, Jeremy’s home – built using the floor plan he personally chose – is in the finishing phase. It’s a safe, affordable, energy-efficient home for him, his wife, and their six-year-old son.
Above: Jeremy’s new home under construction at Chestnut Ridge, one of Kentucky’s high-ground sites.
“Being able to own a home is something I never thought would be possible,” Jeremy said. “This is going to be my sanctuary – a place of peace and serenity, and a little chaos with a six-year-old,” he added with a laugh. “But most of all, it gives me relief and comfort knowing I’ll never be flooded again.”
For Jeremy, homeownership is more than a roof or four walls. It’s proof of how far he’s come – from addiction and disability to recovery, stability, and new beginnings.
He’s quick to point out that he didn’t do it alone.
Like the mandolins he crafts, Jeremy’s new home is built with patience, precision, and care – shaped by faith and strengthened by community. And just as each instrument carries his favorite verse inside, this home carries something just as powerful: a new song of hope, gratitude, and belonging.
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