March 29, 2000

Habitat makes houses real homes

Volunteer earning Habitat for Humanity home through sweat equity

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Three hours down and 247 more to go.
While Molly Miske-Sutton was volunteering at the Habitat for Humanity booth at the organization's flower and garden show Saturday afternoon at the Park Place Dome, she was also building her house. The time she spent sharing about Habitat programs and her own future home with some of the 5,000 attendees who came to the three-day show counted as part of her sweat equity hours.

Habitat for Humanity home how-to
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
People who qualify for a Habitat for Humanity home are referred to as partners. This word reflects the organization's philosophy of not just giving away a home to a needy family but helping them earn it and learn the skills needed to keep it.
To become a partner with Habitat for Humanity, a family first has to demonstrate that they have inadequate, crowded or unsafe housing. Housing affordability is another issue and if a family's income is 60 percent or below the median for their county of residence they may qualify for Habitat help.
A Habitat partner must be willing to contribute 275 hours of sweat equity, which can come from volunteering in other capacities in addition to helping build your own home. In addition, they must have a steady income that will support monthly mortgage payments of approximately $350 per month.
The organization offers counseling to help people pay bills, make a budget and get their credit into shape.
"Partners need to have to have a steady, stable job and good credit," said Onalee Marsh, executive director of the Grand Traverse Area Habitat for Humanity. "If some do have bad credit history, which is not unusual when you are at that income level living paycheck to paycheck, we help them get their credit in shape."
"We work with them over a six-month period and offer a good support network to ensure that they do become a successful homeowner."
The homes Habitat for Humanity builds are standard designs with varying number of bedrooms depending on family size. They are modest homes adapted for the local environment and follow the organization's three guiding principles: housing that is simple, decent and affordable.
People thinking of applying for Habitat for Humanity need not worry if they are not experienced in construction trades. Experienced builders strictly supervise the sweat equity time during the actual building of a home.
"It is so much fun to build a house," said Molly Miske-Sutton of Traverse City, who is earning sweat equity hours toward her home. "You don't even have to know anything because you have people there who direct you."
Marsh stated that her organization receives an average of 3-10 phone calls every day. Last year they had 34 applications for 10 homes, seven of which will be built this year. By 2004, the organization's strategic plan is to build 12 homes in Grand Traverse county and have split off the other three counties it serves - Benzie, Kalkaska and Leelanau - into affiliates of their own. While there will be no shortage of need, land and money are the biggest hurdles locally.
"It is so satisfying to help with something so tangible to a family as building a home," Marsh said. "We are a Christian ministry, not just a construction program."

For Miske-Sutton, who now has 28 of the 275 hours required by Habitat partners to earn a home, she also was at the flower and garden show with the gleam of her own garden in her eye. A garden in her own backyard in Kingsley, in a home she will help build starting this August and plans to move in by Christmas. A home that she and her three children can settle into and call their own.
"I never though I would get a home and I am so glad I did," said Miske-Sutton, a city resident currently living with her children in a rented, two-bedroom duplex. "I would never have owned a home without Habitat; Traverse City is not exactly an inexpensive place to live and it's a wonder anyone can afford to buy a home here."
Miske-Sutton has been involved with Habitat programs for 10 years and was approved for her home last year. Over the past decade, she has gone from being homeless to living in a modular home to renting in town. Now with her combined rent and utility bills eating up virtually all of her income, plus the crowding of her family and some unsafe features of her apartment, she made the cut for a Habitat home this year. A few times in the past her needs qualified her for a home but she would then find an adequate rental and be removed from the list.
She took these ups and downs in stride, biding her time.
"I've been waiting to get a Habitat home since 1990, I knew my time would come," said Miske-Sutton, who plans to be a family advocate for Habitat after she moves into her home. "I've been renting since I was 18 and now I'm 39. If I think about how much money I spent on rent all those years I could have owned two or three homes by now."
Families like Miske-Sutton are exactly the reason that a couple in Georgia formed Habitat for Humanity in 1976. Since then, the organization has built 85,000 homes in 60 countries worldwide.
The Grand Traverse Area Habitat for Humanity chapter has built 34 homes in 12 years in Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Kalkaska and Benzie counties. This year, they are planning to build seven more, but efforts are hampered by the price of land in the region. The local organization faces high real estate prices in such a desirable vacation and recreation community, challenges that a Habitat chapter in a city or rural area does not have.
"Land acquisition is our hardest issue," said Onalee Marsh, executive director of the Grand Traverse Area Habitat for Humanity. "Finding afford land is the biggest hurdle but right now. Rotary Charities is trying to help us acquire surplus land from Traverse City. We are looking into other donations, too."
Fundraising efforts such as the flower and garden show, which grossed $35,000 for the organization, give Habitat for Humanity cash to buy land and finance its home-building efforts. And from the flocks of enthusiastic attendees, the show will be the first of many years of this spring fund-raiser.
"This flower and garden show was an idea whose time had come," Marsh said. "We didn't set a goal for this year because it was the first show but were definitely pleased. The attendance was certainly beyond our expectations."