Habitat for Humanity benefits many in various ways

By LILIANE PARBOT-JOHNSON
Cape Coral Daily Breeze

In little more than one hour, the entire outside frame of the 1,244-square-foot home under construction was covered with blue moisture barrier panels, and a few more things were added, moving the home a few more steps toward completion.

It does not take long to do the job when some three dozen hands are at work, holding the panels up, hammering them or cutting them to fit.

Wednesday, a Habitat for Humanity of Lee County home in Cape Coral at 1703 N.W. 19th St., received many a “hand up” from players and staff members of the Fort Myers Miracle baseball team.

The Miracle were scheduled to be on the site from 10:30 a.m. to noon. First, there were group pictures and doughnuts, and 20 minutes later they picked up carpenter aprons, hammers or cutting tools. Soon they looked like a team of framing carpenters, hard at work in the burning sun. Only the west side of the house provided some shade from the solar rays and a little respite from the intense heat.

Before he started to work, catcher Jeff Christy was asked if he thought they would accomplish much work during the remaining time.

“We hope so,” he said, and pointing to large blue panels piled in the garage, added, “It looks like that’s what we’ll be doing.”

Soon, the sound of hammers hitting the tintabs — the special nails with large washers attached — was coming from all directions, and the blue boards were going up quickly.

Another day — with other volunteers — the vinyl siding will be applied, but Wednesday the Miracle players and staff members also installed the A/C case, which covers the wiring and pipe descending from the roof. In addition, they nailed the vinyl strips at each corner of the house and the “starter strip,” a sort of a metal railing at the bottom that will hold up the exterior vinyl siding. It was nailed to all four walls.

No skills needed

No particular skill is needed by those wishing to contribute to the non-profit Habitat organization, which builds homes all over the word to pursue its mission of eliminating substandard housing.

“All they need to do is call us,” said Mike Mansfield of people wishing to volunteer their time.

Mansfield is Habitat’s director of development for the Lee County affiliate. He said all they need to be able to do is dial a telephone: 239-652-0434. A receptionist answers the calls during office hours, and a recorder takes messages at other times.

“We always need help in the summer,” Mansfield added. This was echoed by others who are working for Habitat for Humanity of Lee County. Currently, a total of 37 homes are under construction in Cape Coral, North Fort Myers, Lehigh and Fort Myers.

The telephone number is the same whether the caller is offering to volunteer, wishes to apply for home ownership or wants to make donations of material for the homes or for the thrift stores.

Habitat for Humanity has two local thrift stores. The newest one is in Cape Coral at 500 Andalusia Blvd. A much larger one of 27,000 square feet is at 1288 Tamiami Trail in North Fort Myers. It offers a larger choice of furniture and housewares, in addition to clothing and other items.

Walls are pre-fab

On the same street in North Fort Myers is another huge Habitat building.

“This is where we build the walls,” Mansfield said. “They are pre-fabricated in the warehouse. If they had to be built on site, it would take longer.”

The warehouse also offers the advantage of “climate control,” he said. It does not have air conditioning, but big fans and a roof overhead make the temperature more bearable while keeping both rain and wind out.

The environment of the warehouse makes it possible to have a greater number of volunteers working there, assembling the wall frames.

Terri Rausch, the coordinator of volunteers, said many who donate their time and efforts in the warehouse are of an advanced age.

“We have volunteers aged from 14 to 91 working in the warehouse,” she said. “Many of these guys in the warehouse are in their 80s. They build the walls in the warehouse, and they bring them to the job sites, and other volunteers put them up. We get groups from the churches, the schools and the community businesses — they are awesome. When we have a need, we let our volunteers know, and they respond.”

Rausch said she has worked for Habitat for the past five years, and her job as volunteer coordinator is to “recruit, retain and keep them.” However, since many volunteers are winter residents, new volunteers are always in great demand during the summer months.

Volunteer shortage in summer

Helping lead the Miracle men and women work was Eduardo Patino, the superintendent of construction on the site. He had first encountered Habitat when he became eligible for a home. He was asked how long a time it takes to build a home.

“It depends,” he said. “My house was built in 24 hours.”

He had recruited family and friends to volunteer on his three-bedroom, one-bath home. In contrast, the one where the Miracle worked has been under construction for a few months.

“This is the off-season,” Patino remarked in a resigned tone.

In the summertime, just about all non-profit organizations experience shortages of volunteers, but for Habitat, the heat of summer is not conducive to bringing many people out to work in temperatures in the high 90s, especially when they are used to spending their days inside air-conditioned homes or offices.

The moisture barrier installed by the Miracle players consists of a thickness of foam, about a half inch in size, covered on each side by a transparent sheet of plastic. Once it entirely envelops the home, the vinyl siding will go up, and the homeowners will get to pick its color. The soffit also will be placed under the roof overhang, and the two poles by the front door will get stucco, according to Patino.

‘Sweat equity’ is down payment

Most often, the house is not assigned to an owner in advance. It goes to the next person having completed 400 hours out of the required 500 hours of “sweat equity” needed for ownership.

For people who qualify for a Habitat home, according to income and other criteria, the “down payment” is mostly done with “sweat equity.” This means they must volunteer 500 hours for Habitat. This does not have to be done entirely by the homeowners, some of whom may be in wheelchair, but they can have relatives or friends contributing hours to fulfill this requirement. Some future homeowners have their co-workers or members of their church help out by volunteering their own labor to reach the number of hours needed. The work is not necessarily done on the homeowner’s future home. It can be done on other homes, as well as in the thrift stores, the warehouse or in other capacities.

Due to the donations of time, construction material and revenues from the thrift shops, Habitat is able to sell the homes it builds to people without any interest being attached to the mortgage. The homeowners only repay the selling price of the house. As the homeowners make their payments each month, the money Habitat receives goes into building more homes.

A total of 650 homes have been built by Habitat for Humanity of Lee County, all over the county since the affiliate started in 1982. The Lee County affiliate has grown to be the third largest Habitat affiliate in the nation. This year, it received the “Habitat for Humanity International’s Affiliate of the Year Award for 2005.”

Volunteers save on own repairs

For the volunteers, the benefits of working for someone to get a home he or she can afford go far beyond the satisfaction of helping someone, or “giving back to the community.” A personal benefit is gained along the way, and this is greatly appreciated by many, according to Habitat plumber Donald Holscher.

“They get to know everything that goes into the house,” he said. “If they have a home or later they get their own home, they can fix it themselves. They don’t have to call a plumber or an electrician. It gives them hands-on experience. I’ve had volunteers come and help, and they go home and work on their own, instead of calling a plumber. They come and help me, and they know how to do it. They don’t need skills, a set of hands is always helpful, even if it is to ask to go get a tool.”

The same goes for electricity and other specialties. The knowledge acquired as a Habitat volunteer pays off in reduced home repair bills, according to Holscher.

The plumber said his work consists of three phases. The first is called “rough-in” and consists of installing the pipes in the slab of the foundation. The second phase is “tube set” — the installation of interior water lines. Finally comes the “trim” phase, which is the installation of the fixtures.

Miracle go out in community

Juli Greenleaf, the “community relations” person for the Miracle, was among the staff members working on the house.

“This is the first time we are doing this for Habitat with our players,” she said. “We are doing it to help the community. They (players) go to hospitals, schools, libraries and juvenile detention centers at least once or twice a week to get out in the community.”

On the sunny side of the house, Miracle pitcher Jeff Manship was soaked with perspiration as he worked on the house. When asked whether his arms look the same when he is playing baseball, he replied, “This is the most I have sweated in my entire life, but it is for a good cause, so it’s worth it.”