Calendar
Sunday, December 8th
The Falmouth Parade
12:00 noon
Watch or - better yet - walk
with us!
Walkers should dress warm and, if you can, wear Habitat sweatshirts and a toolbelt!
Walkers meet at the Falmouth Mall parking lot at 11:00am. For more info, contact Dawn Walnut at dawn@habitatcapcod.org or
508-362-3559 x. 16.
Sat and Sun, Dec. 14 and 15
Lutheran Lights Weekend
First Lutheran Church
1663 Main Street (Rt 6A),
West Barnstable
"Gifts of Hope" Alternative Gift Fair, Scandinavian smorgasbord, music of the season, Santa Lucia Pageant, Swedish meatball dinner, Christmas Market.
About Alternative Gift Fairs
Alternative Gift Fairs are a great way to shop for the holidays. Rather than buying yet another scented candle for Aunt Winifred, honor her by giving in her name. Many charitable organizations are represented at each market, including Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod. You can choose from gifts that will help animals or abolish poverty, to name just a few. Nontraditional gift-giving at its best!
Monday, January 20th, 2014 AmeriCorps Cape Cod's MLK Day of Service To get involved please email MLKDay2014@gmail.com
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News In Brief
ReStore Expansion!
Last June we took over the entire building at 28 White's Path, and plans were drawn for us to make the entire space our own. This month, small volunteer construction crews, under the supervision of Bob Ryley, have started demolition work in preparation for creating an open floor plan which will nearly double the store's retail space and improve storage. The ReStore continues to surpass its goals, and November sales were nearly double the from November last year.
Cape Cod Home Magazine
Be sure to check out the Winter issue of Cape Cod Home magazine for an in-depth article about the Blitz Build, with many beautiful photos by the multi-talented Roe Osborn.
Annual AppealBe sure to look for our annual appeal - coming to your mailbox very soon!
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Construction Update
Mashpee
We are working on flooring at house #9, and awaiting inspections for house #6 in preparation for blueboard. Target finish for both homes is in March.
Currently closed to volunteers during the sub-contractor stage, we expect to open the house for volunteer blueboarding later this month. Target finish date is at the end of March.
Orleans
Two houses have had roof trusses and sheathing complete, and house #2 has been trimmed out, with volunteer crews from Haig Homes and J.S. Skarupa, Inc. Trim work for house #4 will go on next week. Windows, doors, strapping, rigid foam insulation, and hurricane clips are all ongoing right now.
Falmouth
Roof framing and sheathing of the two-bedroom side of the duplex is complete, and nearly complete on the one-bedroom side. Exterior trim work is in progress, and will be complex due to the variety of angles and the complexities of the house design. We expect this stage to continue in a slow and painstaking way, but we are getting closer and closer to a less complex stage of this build, later this winter.
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A Few 25th Gala Memories
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Greetings!
We hope you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Looking for a way to work off some of the calories you consumed? Get a workout at one of our four construction sites. Check VolunteerUP for a schedule or call Dawn Walnut at 508-362-3559 x. 16. Whether you have been celebrating Chanukah or are looking forward to celebrating Christmas - or perhaps another holiday! - we wish you the joys of the season.
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Director's Note
Much ado about something, but what?
A couple of weeks ago, during a wonderful networking event with Mid-Cape social service agencies, Family Selection co-chair Marilyn Nouri caught the ear of a local reporter and her comments became the basis of one news story ("Lack of Applicants Puzzles Housing Experts"), one column ("Solving the Housing Puzzle"), and a lead editorial ("Building Interest") - all in the Cape Cod Times. All this newsprint provided information about our program, some of our eligibility and qualification standards, and sparked new interest. We received calls from future applicants and various advocates. So the effect was very positive, overall.
However, to some readers, the articles raised concerns about whether the need for affordable home ownership homes might be dwindling on Cape Cod. Among the possible reasons for thinking this: the well documented flight of young families from the Cape (for better livelihoods and more affordable housing); the difficulty in qualifying even for a lower priced mortgage such as ours, especially in a down economy when forced job changes are more frequent; and the lack of confidence about job stability, even among qualified applicants who have had stable jobs for many years.
And all these things are true. We know that between 2000 and 2010, Cape Cod experienced a 26.8% decrease in the population between the ages of 25 and 44. This is a statistic that has truly alarmed demographers, town planners, economists, and business leaders. Job stability is also shifting. It used to be quite unusual for a home applicant to experience a job change while their application was under review. Now, with each selection round, we may have a special review of one or more applications - to determine if they will be disqualified by a lay-off, after their original approval by our credit committee.
However, other things are true at the same time. The puzzle Marilyn presented to her colleagues in human services was this: In Orleans recently we received 55 applications for five homes (about 33% of the total applications picked up), whereas in Barnstable we received 11 applications for one home (about 5% of those picked up). What accounted for the difference? We don't think we have all the answers but we do have at least two ideas.
1) Success breeds interest and hope. Where we have built more homes, more recently, we tend to get many more applications. Applicants have friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances that have succeeded with a past application and are now actually living in their own Habitat home. What could offer a more tangible reason for hope or more incentive to actually complete an application? We built in Orleans in 2011, and in the surrounding towns just about every year since at least 2007. Until this year, we had not built in the Town of Barnstable since 2005.
2) Applicants need support and encouragement to finish their application. We know this because almost every successful applicant tell us so! And they get this help from social service agency staff, their church, a teacher, a friend, or a family member. Often they find out about the application or were pushed to obtain an application, from those same supporters. Possible because of our strong track record of home building on the Lower Cape, we have a very strong relationship with several social service agencies, such as Homeless Prevention Council, on the Lower Cape. Their case managers truly know our program and encourage qualified people to apply, supporting them through the process as needed.
For this reason, we are very actively reaching out to other groups to become "ambassadors" between Habitat and the families we might serve. We know that after we met with folks from Cape Cod Child Development, who run the "Head Start" programs, we received more home applicants from Head Start families - and from Head Start staffers! The same is true with schools, health organizations, etc. - these organizations help the same people we serve; in addition, some of their own staff are eligible for our homes.
There are at least two broad truths effecting our applicant outreach at the same time. On the one hand, the economy is more fragile and some people who might have been eligible three years ago, or might have had the confidence to apply three years ago, will not apply now. On the other hand, huge portions of the Cape's economic sectors (health care, education, retail, construction, hospitality, and service, to name a few) employ people full time at wage levels that add up to 65% of area median income, making them income-eligible for a Habitat home. Many of them are in housing crisis, but would never expect that they might actually qualify to own a home. But, with Habitat for Humanity, they could be eligible to do just that. So, we are focusing our efforts on reaching those folks, including networking with more community partners to help us reach those families, and making sure assistance and support is available to help complete the application.
Marilyn Nouri attended that networking meeting that caught the attention of the Cape Cod Times to assist with exactly that goal - to find partners with whom we can collaborate. In this way, we hope to reach as many people as possible and improve our applicant outreach. We are always looking to improve in every area of our work here at Habitat, so if you have ideas or suggestions, please do let us know. We want to be the best we can be.
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Our Tithe | |
Carter work project in Haiti - photo by Donna Baldwin
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Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod tithes 10% of unrestricted income to Habitat for Humanity International (HfHI) for global housing work. What does that mean exactly? The word "tithe" means "a tenth," and traditionally a tithe is a contribution equaling 10% of funds raised in a given year. Our tithe is a contribution to HfHI's home building work outside the United States. Tithes contributed by affiliates are one of the largest sources of house building for many developing countries. Affiliates are able to request where their tithe is used, and for several years now, we have requested 75% of our tithe to be used in Haiti, with the remaining 25% to be used where it is most needed.
If you donate to our local Cape Cod affiliate and request that the funds be used for a build site on Cape Cod, 100% of your donation will go directly to that construction project. However, if you do not designate the funds for a particular build, you can feel good knowing that 10% of your contribution will be used to build houses overseas. The average cost of a housing solution overseas (including rehabs, repairs, microfinance, and traditional homebuilding) is $4,500. This means that since 1988, our tithe contributions have been credited with helping to provide over 100 families with safe and secure shelter. We are proud of our tithe tradition, which our affiliate's founders took very seriously.
For a detailed look at what our tithe has helped to accomplish in Haiti, click here.
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Volunteer Spotlight
Diane Barstow works in the Habitat office - doing pretty much anything that needs to be done! She is in the office most Wednesdays, and seemingly can handle anything we seem to throw her way - with grace and good humor. Most of her time is spent updating the database of volunteers, but she has also helped with mailings, printing thank you cards (which, with our previous and very cantankerous copy machine, was a harder task than it sounds), Excel spreadsheets, "You've Got Mail," program books, mailing lists, putting together volunteer awards, etc. Diane makes life so much easier for the Habitat staff - we love Diane!
Diane worked for 25 years for a church as a Business Administrator, managing the building operation, and most things financial. She got started volunteering for Habitat through Katrina Mission trips through her church, Northside United Methodist in Brewster. Diane got to work on a Jimmy Carter Blitz build on one of the trips, and counts the stories she heard from Hurricane Katrina survivors as her most memorable Habitat experiences. Diane also volunteered on the Women Build on James Burr Rd. In 2011 her husband, Habitat volunteer Wade Barstow, saw that Habitat was looking for people to volunteer in the office and she has been doing that ever since. Diane tells us, "It has been a perfect fit!"
Working in the office gives Diane a unique perspective, where she gets to learn about all the many different aspects of Habitat's work. She would like new volunteers to know that "there are many ways to volunteer that make a difference. If you aren't comfortable with the building process, there is the office, ReStore, registration, food, prayer, etc. etc." Diane herself is a testament to that. And why does she work with us? "I believe in affordable housing and the mission of Habitat.I love that there are so many volunteers that help this whole concept work. I believe what I do frees the staff to concentrate on the really important details."
Diane is certainly right about that! Wendy Cullinan, Habitat's Director of Resource Development, says, "Diane's quiet support not only has a huge impact on the work we can accomplish from the office, but her gentle, calming presence is a joy. We look forward to seeing her each week she is here."
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What's YOUR Habitat Story?
We heard some great stories in our 25th anniversary video,
"That's Why I Help Build It" (which you can see here) -
now tell us YOUR story.
or 508-362-3559 ex. 16.
Your stories are important to us.
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