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photos by C. Rodkey |
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The students had one free day to relax before the project began. They enjoyed Bellingrath Gardens on Sunday before resting up for the next day’s work. At 8 a.m. Monday morning, the team arrived at the worksite: a community of about nine habitat homes each in various stages of completion. The team split into two groups to work on separate houses, each with a Habitat staff member as project leader.
The project leader began the day describing the work of Mobile County’s Habitat for Humanity to the volunteers. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, families all along the Gulf lost their homes and many were displaced. The victims of the hurricane sought housing in the surrounding regions, such as Mobile County. With the influx of people, housing prices skyrocketed. Modest homes selling for $85,000 prior to the hurricane were going for upwards of $125,000 and rent prices witnessed the same inflation.
Habitat for Humanity provides homes at cost with no profit or interest added. Since the labor for Habitat homes is largely volunteer based, Habitat homes cost around $55,000-$65,000 for families who meet the eligibility requirements.
The Habitat staff stressed that the families are not ‘given’ a home, but they become home owners. In fact, one stipulation of owning a Habitat home is that the homeowners must put in “sweat equity” by helping to build their or other Habitat homes. Before Hurricane Katrina, Habitat for Humanity built four Mobile County homes per year. This year, however, the chapter is working toward 100 homes. Chaffey College and St. Mary’s College formed a team of twenty-five to he