Friday, November 13, 2009
A ReMinder to ReCycle with the ReStore, Cars for Homes
Ready to become more energy efficient? Fuel efficient? Then donate your old appliance and your old car. The Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County ReStore accepts gently used appliances and other household items, including furniture, that could’ve ended up in a landfill. The ReStore resells these items to the public at 50%-90% off of retail. Last year alone, proceeds from the ReStore helped build two more houses.
We also keep our homebuilding program alive with the help from our Cars for Homes program. Simply donate your unwanted vehicle keeps more cars out of the junkyard and more families in homes.
We urge you to tell your friends, neighbors and passersby to join millions of Americans pledging to increase their recycling habits at home and work and to buy products made with recycled materials. Use November 15th as a springboard for change to help build more homes by ReCyling with the ReStore and turning Cars into Homes.
Monday, October 19, 2009
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Monday, September 28, 2009
World Habitat Day 2009
Let's stand up on World Habitat Day and let it be known that affordable, adequate housing should be a priority everywhere—in our communities, in our towns, in our country, in our world.
The United Nations has designated the first Monday of each October as World Habitat Day. This year on October 5, in
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the 2007 ‘Fair Market Rent’ (FMR) for a two-bedroom apartment in
In May 2007, the Delaware Housing Coalition reported only 36 % of Delawareans can afford the median home price of $228,000. Moreover, 26,000 households in DE are considered ‘severely burdened’ by cost of living; spending more than 50% of their total income on housing.
The number of children living in poverty conditions in NCC is astounding. According to data collected by the Delaware Housing Coalition’s 2005-2006 study “The Realities of Poverty,” over 10% of children in NCC ages 5-17 are living in poverty; or one in every 10 children.
How You Can Help
Raising awareness and advocating for change are the first steps toward transforming systems that perpetuate the global plague of poverty housing. World Habitat Day serves as an important reminder that everyone must unite to ensure that everyone has a safe, decent place to call home.
Please be a part of this crucial worldwide movement, and sign our World Habitat Day petition, by going to our website at www.habitatncc.org.
Additionally, to celebrate World Habitat Day, Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County, along with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Wilmington Field Office is hosting a groundbreaking ceremony at our newest Habitat development,
World Habitat Day 2009
10 a.m.
If you would like to attend our World Habitat Day Celebration, please R.S.V.P. by emailing bporterrockwell@habitatncc.org, or calling 302-652-0365 ext. 108 by Oct. 2.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
DelaWhere? Habi-Who?
Since her blog is all about living here in Delaware, and bringing focus to the richness of simply being here, I, being employed by Habitat, can relate to that need to spread the gospel, so to speak.
When people ask what I do, and I say I work for Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County, they automatically think, 'Oh you're the people that give homes to poor people.' I automatically groan and think cue the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition bulldozer and host Ty Pennington's megaphone. (Of course, that's assuming someone who's been living on Mars for most of their life doesn't say 'HabiWho?')
Geez people...While like, Extreme Makeover, we are building homes and fulfilling the American Dream of homeownership, we are unlike them in that we do not give away homes. Our homeowners don't get weeklong vacations to Disney in exchange for a new place to lay their head each night. They get 225 sweat equity hours. That means, for every volunteer who comes out on site, you're bound to be swinging your hammer right next to the future owner of that lot.
But even before they go out on site, they get 18 hours of our Conerstone construction training -basic skills to prepare them for the worksite. And our homeowners themselves are the hospital nurses caring for you and your loved ones or the security guards ensuring your safety on a dark campus, for example.
It's through this combination of sweat equity and zero interest mortgages that our prospective homeowners, after a near year-long committment, get to drop the 'prospective' tag and can finally say they partnered with Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County and they now own a home.
And like the 'DelaWhere' jokes that undoubtedly will keep coming, HFHNCC will undoubtedly be there to surpass our current stock of 139 homes.
Wright Done Right
According to the Wright Foundation's CEO Phil Allsopp, Wright penned this phrase in 1908: "Buildings are the background or framework for the human life." A key message Wright tried to get across in all that he did was that we need to be able to act in concert with changing times.
Times like now when so many people are losing their jobs and facing the threat of losing their homes. Through all of this the lesson we've embraced includes looking for new and different ways to create quality and sustainable dwellings and, where necessary, restore existing structures.
It's this last part that brings me back to what we do here at Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County. We like to think of ourselves as providers of those "background[s] or framework[s] for human life." We've done it here in NCC for more than 20 years and even in these uncertain economic times, we will continue with the Habitat mission to build affordable housing, modify some existing structures, and also, in some ways, maintain the vision of the pioneer of affordable housing.
And so welcome to the Habitat Happenings blog. We look forward to engaging you in the mission to give hardworking, local families their shot at the American Dream of homeownership.