Four Walls and a Roof: Mainstreet Senior Services Lends a Hand to Habitat for Humanity and Affordable Housing Efforts

Mainstreet HQ, Downers Grove – Mainstreet Senior Services teamed up with Habitat for Humanity Northern Fox Valley to spend a day volunteering constructing residential home walls in Crystal Lake as an extension of their efforts to support affordable housing initiatives.

Mainstreet Senior Services committee volunteered with Northern Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity  in Crystal Lake, IL on June 5 to build a, “Habitat Home.”

This is our first Mainstreet Senior Services build project with Habitat for Humanity. Based on the turnout, I would say it will not be our last. Moreover, several members of the committee have volunteered with Habitat before. Personally, I have been volunteering with Habitat for Humanity since 2009. It is rewarding work; construction of affordable housing is definitely one of the most important aspects to finding homes for families in need.

One of the many benefits associated with volunteering at Habitat for Humanity is that they are an extremely volunteer-friendly organization. When we arrived at the worksite, we were presented with some information about Habitat and of course, worksite safety. Several experienced volunteers were on-site to assist us with the project. The atmosphere is a cheerful, learn as you go process. Nobody is ever asked to complete a task that they are not comfortable taking on. “Many hands make light work.”

Particularly exciting was the actual raising of the walls because we had additional volunteers who had a head start on the walls. For this project, the walls were previously framed through a “Geometry in Construction” project with the Crystal Lake High School. Students from the high school worked with their teachers to pre-fabricate the walls so they just needed to be finished when we arrived. We sheeted and insulated the walls before they were raised and secured into place.

The families chosen for a Habitat home must meet certain criterion and it is determined that they would not be able to afford a home under conventional means. Habitat is a helping hand up, not a hand-out. Habitat is a collaboration between both the builder and the lender who offer the home at a zero-percent interest loan. Families that apply to Habitat for Humanity go through a process where they are educated on home finance, home maintenance and the Habitat process. Each family member over the age of 18 that will be residing in the home contributes a minimum of 250 hours of their personal time, putting in what Habitat for Humanity calls of “sweat equity.” “Sweat equity,” involves assisting with building their home or their neighbor’s home.

James Zei, the Home Preservation Programs Coordinator and I wanted to provide some context for how the Habitat for Humanity project connects with goals for Senior Services. Habitat for Humanity homes are built with aging-in-place and universal design in mind. James explained how, “Keeping in mind that each affiliate has its own set of designs, we do several modifications for Aging-In-Place. We now have homes with little to no steps for entry into the home. We also designed walk-in showers with very low threshold entries. Doorknobs are also modified to use a lever style handle. Details like this are designed to assist the homeowners in living a long and safe life in their new Habitat home.”

He went on to elaborate on what the phrase “universal design” entails when building out a Habitat home. “Universal design is meant to cover and assist everyone possible. For instance, we may suffer an injury that changes how simple tasks are approached; we may require modifications due to illnesses that have changed our daily lives. Sometimes it’s just getting old takes its toll and we need more assistance with chores. What we have learned now with Universal Design is that we change the 'thing' and not the person.”

Mainstreet Senior Services is looking forward to discussing the success of our experience with Habitat and apply the creative energy of the group towards our next philanthropic volunteer project. We learned about Habitat’s commitment to universal design, aging in place and their dedication to supporting affordable housing.

Second to only the construction work we did that day, I feel like we learned more about the goodness of each other as we volunteered, raised money and shared meals. We saw firsthand exactly what can happen when we are all in one place, with a shared goal and some time to work together.

A special shoutout to the Mainstreet Senior Services volunteers and friends who dedicated their time and energy to the Habitat for Humanity Northern Fox Valley home construction: Gy Sathe, Harriet Kubicz, Roshaunta Lewis, Sharon Lynch, Ramona Ruskuls, Julie Roback, Robert Petranek, Mark Smolenski, Mario Bilotas, Pete Giannis, Ted Gebeau, Joe Charles, Keith Soldner, Lorraine Anderson, Larry Lindahl, Todd Tifft, Catherine Terpstra, Russ Mangialardi, Anuja Gupta, Monique Fisher, Joanne Rancich, Lisa Keating and Carol Moore.

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