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Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 30, 2006

Pontiac — "God has blessed me," Ilene Perrymond said as she surveyed the house she helped build, which will become a new home for her and her two children.

Without the help of Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County, Perrymond said, she probably wouldn't have been able to afford a home. Her new home, east of downtown Pontiac, was part of a group of five simple but sturdy houses being built in two weeks during the Oakland Blitz.

Ilene Perrymond said she was blessed that she will be the owner of the Habitat for Humanity house, her first home. She said she probably wouldn’t be able to afford a house without the interest-free program Habitat offers.

The Rochester Coalition, a group made up of members of Catholic and other churches, built Perrymond's home and was to landscape the property to make it a yard, as well.

Art Schlachter, of St. John Fisher University Parish at Oakland University and house leader for the Rochester Coalition's project, explained that the group raises the funds and the work force to put together a house over the two weeks. "We raise enough money to build one house," he explained.

Working from the foundation, volunteers started one Saturday with raising the house's walls. Schlachter explained that those are built in sections at a prison near Lapeer, so they're assembled at the house. After the walls are up, volunteers follow with trusses, roofing, windows, doors, insulation and drywall. The house has to be weather-tight before they could put the insulation and drywall in, he explained.

Professionals come in and install the drywall, and they can do an entire house in less than a day. After that, siding and painting followed, and by the end of two weeks the group was scheduled to finish up the interior.

Habitat for Humanity • Founded in 1976. • Nonprofit, ecumenical housing ministry. • Has built nearly 200,000 homes around the world. • There are 84 Michigan affiliates. • Will build about a dozen new homes this year in Oakland County alone. • Homeowners must have inadequate housing, be able to pay the 20-year mortgage and want to be a partner in the program.

On June 21, work was stalled at the house due to heavy rain. When the rain let up during the morning, the crews would do as much work outside as possible before the next squall.

All five houses were scheduled to be done and dedicated the afternoon of Friday, June 30, with a celebration afterward.

At the Rochester Coalition house, a mix of old and young, male and female, and experienced and less-so volunteers worked together. Schlachter, a retired General Motors engineer, explained that most of the volunteers are church members, but he doesn't ask who's who: he just puts them to work.

The volunteers start every day with prayer, that they can have a safe day and that no one gets hurt, Schlachter said. At lunchtime, they're bused over to the Habitat for Humanity's Oakland headquarters, where tents are set up for the volunteers to eat lunch. They call it a day at about 5 or 6 p.m.

Habitat for Humanity volunteers throw into the back of a garbage truck the trash that comes with building a house.

Steve Campbell, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County, explained that it costs about $75,000-80,000 to build a Habitat house, which can be offset by the cost of donations of roof shingles, for example. For a group to sponsor a house, it needs to raise about $65,000-$75,000.

The home is sold to the homeowner, but because the Bible says you do not charge interest on what you lend to your brothers and sisters in need (Exodus 22:25: "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him"), the homes are sold at-cost and without interest, Campbell said. Families qualify based on their income and the size of the family.

Habitat tries to make the monthly payments about $500, including taxes and insurance — typically less than what families were paying in rent previously, Campbell said. Depending on how much down payment assistance the family receives, the mortgage can be calculated for 15 to 30 years, with 20 the norm.

Michael McDermit, at the top of the ladder, gets advice from other Habitat for Humanity volunteers about how to position a corner siding piece.

The houses are well-built but not filled with bells and whistles, Schlachter explained. For example, the Rochester Coalition house was a three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot ranch, typical for a Habitat house, in a city neighborhood.

Ron Fryzel, who organized the volunteers from St. Ireneaus Parish, has been involved for about five years. The parish provides volunteers to Habitat projects and financial contributions, as well.

He said people volunteer because of the sense of accomplishment they have from helping someone else. "It's a way of contributing, of giving something back," he said. "They feel real good about what they're doing."

Fryzel signed up to do work on five days of the two-week build, using his experience as an engineer and from the work he's done on his own house.

For the volunteers who didn't feel comfortable helping to build a house, there was still plenty to do in the way of hospitality and making sure the work crews got fed. Bonnie Blakowski, also a member of St. Ireneaus, has been making sure crews got drinks and snacks for five years."It's a wonderful thing to do," she said. "I'm not brave enough to pick up a hammer," she joked.

Younger volunteers help out with the food tents or guiding cars into the parking lot. She remembers when she first got involved, and volunteers would be working on only one house, lunch would include a barbecue on the homeowner's new front porch.

Volunteers prepare the back of a new Habitat for Humanity house for siding.

She said the experience was both fun and gratifying, and that she likes working with the homeowners. The improvement to the neighborhood is another bonus, she said.

Homeowners put in hundreds of hours on other homes and their own home — what Habitat calls "sweat equity" — and pay off a mortgage of interest-free payments that goes into a fund to build more homes.

For Perrymond, who processes and sterilizes surgical instruments at North Oakland Medical Center, her new home offers a chance to move out of her mother's house with her children, ages 16 and 2, into their own place. She said the crew was friendly and compared the atmosphere to a "circle of love," in which her house was being built.

"They are great," she said of the crew.

She said Monday she was excited to see walls up and being painted and doors being hung, and joked that the getting the yard together would be the next big step.

Habitat for Humanity, founded in 1976 in Georgia, builds houses around the world for those who do not have adequate shelter. It has built thousands of homes all over the world for about a million people.

More information • www.habitat.org • www.habitatoakland.org • www.habitatdetroit.org • www.macombhabitat.org • www.lapeerhabitat.org • www.bwhabitat.org

Habitat for Humanity, a Christian organization, welcomes volunteers of any level of experience for building and other jobs.

Houses are sold to partner families at no profit and financed with interest-free loans. Families must be currently living in inadequate housing, have the ability to repay the 20-year mortgage, and be willing to become a partner in the program.

Providing housing for those in need can be found in the Catholic social teachings, as well; Catholics are called to provide care and concern for the poor and vulnerable, as well as to love our neighbors.