American Diversity Report - Marty's Montage: Habitat Women Build Family Home

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Marty's Montage: Habitat Women Build Family Home

Written b

y Marty L. Bryant

            Latrice Kirk, the single mom of two-year-old Joshua, dreamed, wished and wondered how she’d ever become a homeowner. She was unyielding, however, in her unwillingness to raise Joshua in a housing development or any dwelling she deemed unsafe. Merely making ends meet seemed a Herculean task. Costs for a safe apartment, massive utility bills, college tuition, child care and daily life staples were driving her deeper in debt, unable to save a dollar for a rainy day. Plus, it was already storming. Then she learned about Women Build.

            Women Build is a division of Habitat for Humanity. Habitat, since its 1976 inception, has built more than 200,000 houses worldwide. Dedicated to building simple, decent and affordable housing using volunteer labor, Habitat houses are sold to qualifying applicants at no profit. But this is about Women Build, specifically.

            Women Build is comprised of females who volunteer to take the lead in the construction of homes. Let me be clear – I am not talking namby-pamby stuff here. Not planting flowers, clean-up, or bringing lunch. Women Build is about sisters sawing; girls grinding; ladies laboring; females fitting tongues-in-grooves, and damsels decking. It’s about heroines hammering, madams with mallets (sledgehammers), lasses loading and lifting, and generally tough, savvy mature-minded misses managing two-by-fours. This phenomenal volunteer opportunity is about women working it out.

            The trade off for someone like Kirk, who’ll be moving into her new abode when we complete the structure [I proudly say we, as I personally hammered, toted and measured last week] is that she, too must throw in some muscle. And she’s loving it. “I am so excited to be actually helping build the home I’ll have with my son,” said Kirk. “After my divorce, I was working at the Waffle House, and it never seemed like we could get ahead. If nothing else, I wanted to have a roof of our own for my son and myself.” So, powered up, she is hands-on toward realizing her dream.

            Heading Chattanooga’s Women Build is Dawn Stoike, a Vista Volunteer who was shipped to us last August from Michigan. “Vista has a history of dealing with low income circumstances, substandard housing. Habitat has been in Chattanooga since 1986, but the Women Build project began here in 1996.”

            Stoike assures that qualifiers for Habitat homes must fit specific poverty guidelines, and share in the raising of the walls. “To qualify, you have to meet guidelines which change yearly, as they are based on federal standards of income limits. A Habitat homeowner has to take special classes, and put in up to 300 equity hours,” said Stoike. This can mean working at the site, as Kirk is doing, as well as putting in Habitat time otherwise.

            Women Build standards for homeownership are Habitat- typical, just that women are doing the work. Habitat volunteer Diane Barnes has given 14 years to volunteer-house-building. I guess you’d call her the ‘foreman’ on the Women Build structures. And it’s not just any old house we’re building. It’s an EarthCraft House. This means it is part of a green development in the area where it’s going up. I choose not to list the location in this column. Anyway, this type of home can increase energy efficiency by 30 percent, which can result in a reduction of more than 1,100 pounds of greenhouse gasses introduced into the atmosphere each year.

            To that end, a definitive statement is logged in a news release about Women Build. It reads, “Given that Habitat Women Build is about supporting another woman, we are helping out one of the most important, Mother Earth.” As my nieces and nephews would say, “Yay! Sweet!”

            And while I’m summoning up my family’s kids’ use of ‘sweet’, I would be remiss if I failed to note that Kirk waxes sentimental in defining her emotions. “A house to me means a lot of things. It is a warm shelter, a place to call home, and something of value that comes from hard work and respect. It is a place to raise a Godly family, a place of peace and honor.” Indeed.

            Another few words about the feel-goodness of Women Build. Now, this is what you might call the Marty part of my Montage. Well, I arrive at the site, day one for me. Diane Stoike signs me in, directs me to construction tools. I admit that though recently I changed out some plumbing (small potatoes) at my home, I wasn’t ready for the big tub of items facing me. I chose my hammer, hiked on a tool-belt with slots for my nails, and donned what appeared to be the softest leather work gloves. By the way, lots of LOWE’S stuff on hand. They are what’s called a National Partner with Habitat.

            Shame on me for missing the workshops LOWE’S put on that may have helped me do a better job that first day. But now comes more about Diane Barnes. Her husband was at the site, which was a comfort, I thought initially. Until he warned me to “be careful not to jump down over that wall, you could land on loose rocks and break your ankle!” He was mostly in repose in their truck. Reading, I think. I thought that surely he could do something out here. But hey, it’s Women Build, and he knew his wife was on the case. He’s a long-time volunteer, too.

            Diane Barnes. Well, she gave me a couple of seemingly simple tasks. The foundation was raised, and it was decking time. She had me walk the perimeter, hammer poised, making certain every nail was in place, flush and straight. No nail-heads sticking up. She began teaching me about a toe-nail, where you hammer it in at a severely cat-a-corner angle (my construction talk). Then she had me climb up on deck. Literally. I am not fond of ladders, but after clambering aboard, she explained how we’d ‘lay a long, then a mid-sized, then a short piece of tongue-in-groove’. She gave me a thick pencil, set me to marking the spots where we’d nail, after gluing down the thick lumber which we dragged into place.

            She probably figured I’d have goose-sense enough to hammer where I’d actually marked the spots, but as she checked behind me, I was disappointed to hear her gently explain that “the reason you marked the decking is so you’d get the nails into the right places. You can look under the deck and see you missed a few.” Rats. But she simply showed me how to fix what I’d messed up. And she taught me things she must have repeated to the non-experienced a hundred-zillion times. Fourteen years, after all, she’s been on the case.

            Well, I could go on about all I learned day one. But I think most important, aside from all the feel-good wonder of Women Build, is this: Women Build still needs gutsy ladies who care about this mission – or who don’t care but are still willing to step up to the planks. The needs are great. Says Stoike, “We still need donations. We need to raise 65-thousand dollars, and we need volunteers. Women, come out and help.”

            You likely have questions, I did. Such as, are the new homeowners getting low-interest loans? How much do the houses cost? Quickly, a three-bedroom is $62,000, a four bedroom is $65,000. And while this project is meant to help with no-interest loans, residents are required to meet typical standards of paying mortgages.

            Hope you’ll want to know more than I have space to tell. Call Habitat for Humanity and inquire about Women Build. Since 1996, Women Build has completed one home each year, except for 2007. And, female work crews have built more than 1,200 homes in 14 countries. Call Dawn Stoike 423. 756.0507.

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