Pictured are Optimist President David Kafitz and Ms. Jackson, who received a copy of the Optimist Creed.
By Rick Abercrombie
Habitat for Humanity of Central South Carolina has served this area for 40 years. Its Executive Director, Moryah Jackson, recently gave St. Andrews Optimists a real-time snapshot of the ongoing work and mission in the Midlands.
To date, Central S.C. Habitat has built over 250 homes for qualified applicants. The goal is to help families overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges to owning their own homes. In that endeavor, over 850 children have been housed along with their families.
The work of Habitat consists of key ingredients:
Identifying the Need: Families complete a workup of their finances and commit to investing 300 hours of “sweat equity,” i.e., working on the actual construction.
Affordability: Habitat negotiates mortgages with a goal that the monthly payment won’t exceed 25 percent of gross income. It also sells the home at no profit.
In today’s dollars, the cost of materials and labor for a typical Habitat house is $138,000. Jackson noted that although much of the labor involved is that of volunteers and the future owners’ sweat equity —i.e., no cost to the homeowner —professional contractors are brought into the project for foundation, electrical, and plumbing work. The only variable that can run up the cost of the house is handicap accessible add-ons, primarily entrance ramps.
Volunteering for the labor component of a Habitat home is a popular mission-oriented outreach for church groups. Also, USC has a very active Habitat chapter in which current students are able to work on the three to four Habitat homes that are consistently in progress in the Midlands at any one time.
Junior Ria Kothari is the President of the USC chapter and is a biochemistry major from Kingsport, TN. She notes that Habitat work is particularly educational for students from out of town, who live on campus, and who otherwise might not sense a local connection.
Habitat nationally is supported by corporate and individual donors. Another steam of income is the Habitat “Re-Store” where used household goods are sold with the profits going toward keeping material costs down. For example, a kitchen remodel might yield an entire set of cabinets. Those cabinets would never be reused as Habitat construction materials, but would surely yield profit dollars.
