Some company volunteers were cleaning the yard while others cleaned and painted inside the four-bedroom house built around five years ago for a Habitat family. When that family relocated out of state, Habitat decided to “recycle” and ready the house for a new homeowner, Jacqueline Czaja and her five children, said Bill Horstman, executive director for Habitat for Humanity of Miami and Shelby Counties.
“We will tear out what needs taken out, put everything in brand new,” said Horstman, who remembered helping build the house, working on the roof, while a member of the habitat board.
“We are in a sense recycling, rehabbing that house for Jacqueline and her children. We have never done a recycled house. It is not that we want to recycle the homes because that means a habitat family has left, but the rehab aspect is a strategy. If we can get a right price, we may be able to help more families,” Horstman said.
Czaja was required to undergo the same scrutiny and requirements as the owner of a new habitat home would, he said. That includes providing sweat equity and taking on a 20-year interest free mortgage that will include the remaining amount on the original mortgage, Horstman said emphasizing many people still think incorrectly that the houses are given to the qualifying families.
“We are helping them become homeowners. … That’s the message that needs to come across — you are a homeowner, it’s not a charity,” he said.
Work on the house recycling was done each Wednesday in April by teams from Crane Pumps. Once their work was done, other habitat volunteers will help complete the project.
Habitat for Humanity of Miami and Shelby counties also is working on a new construction in Jackson Center for Kara Mullen and her three children. That project’s main sponsor is Airstream in Jackson Center, whose employees are providing helping hands.
This is the first habitat home project in Shelby County since 2010. The Shelby County group became part of Miami County’s habitat organization after the Shelby county board was dissolved a couple of years ago.
For more information on the local habitat for humanity, go online to www.hfhmco.org or call 937-332-3763.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com.
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