Habitat for Humanity: interracial organization builds houses and dreams

Ebony, Nov, 1997 by Kelly Starling

"On dedication day, I saw the glow in not just the family s and their children's eyes, but in the eyes of volunteers," Walker says. "That put me at the point of no turning back from Habitat for Humanity."

According to Habitat statistics, volunteers build a house about every 50 minutes. That's roughly 1000 homes each month.

Families in need of housing apply to Habitat offices located in about 1,500 communities worldwide. The affiliates choose homeowners based on their level of need, willingness to meet requirements of the program-including spending hours of "sweat equity" building their own house--and their ability to repay the non-interest loan. The cost of Habitat houses varies throughout the world from as little as $500 in developing nations to an average of $40,000 in the United States. Mortgage payments go back into the fund to build more houses.

"So many lives have been saved," Walker says. "I'm not just talking about the lives of the homeowners, but the lives of volunteers who come out every week to bring food or help nail. I have not met a person yet whose need cannot be met by Habitat for Humanity."

One of those people in need was Rosie Simmons of Chicago. On March 3, 1989--she still remembers the date--the single mother moved with her four children into a Habitat townhouse she helped build in an uptown neighborhood. The 41-year-old woman says she never dreamed of owning a home.

Growing up, she and 15 brothers and sisters shared a four-room shack in Mississippi with their parents. The siblings slept, four across the top and bottom of two double beds. She moved to Chicago and became a single mother, living in rat- and roach-infested projects forded by gang members. They demanded a payment each time she took the elevator with groceries.

Her life changed one day in church when the pastor told her to wait for him after service. He and other members took her to the empty lot that would become her four-bedroom house. It took two years to build, but she and the kids waited. Although the house had been-furnished with donations from church members, Simmons and her children slept clustered together that first night on the dining room floor. They were too excited to go anyplace else.

To Simmons, her simple gray home means hope. She credits having safe housing with everything from helping steer her son away from gangs to helping her land a job with a local bank.

"This house is a blessing," she says, gesturing to her pretty kitchen. "I love the dream of Habitat. I love the fact that people will have houses and they don't even know it yet."

Fuller says he feels God guided him to Habitat's mission.

He was born the son of poor White sharecroppers in East Alabama. His family was always religious, he says, but they also yearned to have money. Fuller started working toward that goal early. At age 6, he started raising pigs. He traded used cars and sold firecrackers as a teen. In college and law school, he and a friend teamed up and became campus entrepreneurs. They published student telephone directories, started a birthday cake service, sold cookbooks. The pair owned half a city block by graduation.