Three local Bullhead City Real Estate Agents traveled to Mobile, Alabama recently to lend a hand in building a home for Habitat For Humanity's hurricane-response program, Operation Home Delivery, which was implemented to help low-income hurricane affected families in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama. The program began immediately after Hurricane Katrina and expanded after Hurricane Rita.
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit Christian housing ministry that provides affordable housing for "people of all backgrounds, races and religions." Through donations of labor, money and materials, they are able to "partner" with families to build simple, decent homes, which are sold at no profit and financed with affordable loans.
A prospective Habitat homeowner doesn't just receive a home. They must provide a down payment and monthly mortgage payments in addition to investing hundreds of hours of their own labor, called Sweat Equity, into building their home, and the homes of others.
Janice McGraw, Jeanne Reimer, and Nancy Ryan were part of a Global Village Team sponsored by the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. The crew consisted of 16 Arizona REALTORS®, 11 Americorp volunteers, ages 18-24, three volunteers from New Jersey, two volunteers from Iowa and a supervisor.
The crew started with a blank slab and by the end of day three had the house framed, hurricane strapped and bolted down with tar paper on the roof. Roof shingles would take another day, and they would also be putting windows in and installing vinyl siding.
The home itself is slated for a widow with 11 children, five of which are still at home. She is required to invest 300 Sweat Equity hours on any Habitat home, but up to 150 hours can be donated by other workers, in this case, the Arizona team. She will receive her home interest free, however if she sells her home within 9 years, she will have to pay the 9 years of waived interest.
More than 50,000 volunteers have worked through Habitat to carry out recovery efforts, with over 57 Habitat Homes beginning construction every month since Hurricane Katrina. If you would like more information on Habitat for Humanity, or information on becoming a volunteer, please see their website at http://www.habitat.org/ or call Global Village at (800) 422-4828.
Picture Caption: The group photo is the Global VillageTeam sponsored by the Arizona Association of REALTORS. Bullhead team members are left to right 1st row 2nd person Janice McGraw (American Eagle Real Estate), 9th Nancy Ryan (US Southwest), 10th Jeanne Reimer (Jeanne Reimer & Associates)
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