A new perspective on home ownership: Habitat

Another non-profit I'm doing work with is Habitat for Humanity. Established in the 1970s as a Christian ministry, Habitat has built 300,000 homes across the globe for families in need. Moana and I spent the morning with the development officer for Habitat's New England fundraising, and visited build sites in Dorchester and Newton. This was really a wonderful opportunity and incredibly inspiring to see. Our company is supposed to participate in both a local and international build over the coming year, and I can't wait!

Dorchester site:

The Dorchester project takes place on Blue Hills Avenue. Once a thriving Jewish community, this area has really fallen victim to crime, drugs and a faltering economy. This is a very unusual project for Habitat -- it's larger than normal (multiple buildings, 24 new homes) and will include 2000 square feet of commercial/retail space. Foreclosures run rampant in this area -- we visited several neighborhoods where home after home is boarded up, and on one street, 11 out of the 14 homes have been foreclosed. We visited Building #1 -- I believe Habitat is still in the process of selecting families for this development, and part of the retail space was recently purchased by a local salon owner to create a hairdressing school.. We had a chance to also drive by a series of Habitat homes that were built more than a decade ago -- all of those families still live there and are thriving.

Each unit has a kitchen, living area, bathroom, storage pace and two/three bedrooms. I'm jealous -- there's some serious closet space!

Newton site:

The Newton property came about as part of a bequest from an elderly woman who owned three acres of land in Newton. Part was given to the local conservation department, the other was dedicated to affordable housing. Habitat is building a two-family home from the ground-up. The two families have been chosen. One is a single mother living in public housing, and the others are both pre-school teachers who were getting by living with family. Both have been very active in the build process.