Goucher Habitat for Humanity works to rebuild Sandtown
Auni Husted
Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Features
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Led by Goucher's Habitat for Humanity Co-president Travis Jolly '09, the four of us braved a bumpy Gouchermobile ride into the city and entered the headquarters of the Sandtown Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit Christian organization founded in 1976, seeks to eliminate homelessness by constructing and rehabilitating homes for low-income families. They have been responsible for creating 225,000 comfortable homes -- affecting about 1 million people in 3000 areas around the world. Volunteers perform the construction; charitable donations fund all materials. Habitat homes range are worth $800-$60,000 and are always sold to "partner families" at zero profit. The new homeowners are also responsible for contributing "sweat equity" to their homes- that is, they are expected to put in a certain number of hours of their own labor into the building.
Sandtown-Winchester, a neighborhood in West Baltimore, has suffered years of poverty. The Sandtown Habitat for Humanity (SHH) branch formed in 1989 with the aim to rebuild vacant houses and increase home ownership in search of a more healthy community. It has produced 230 homes in its first 18 years, with the average value of a rehabilitated rowhouse at about $50,000. Partner families in Sandtown must put 330 hours of sweat equity into their homes.
As we walked into SHH, we were confronted with a warehouse full of dusty plywood, bags of concrete mix, and wheelbarrows propped against the wall. A SHH employee directed us to gather the necessary supplies for our day of service- gardening gloves, dust masks, goggles, brooms, shovels, trash cans, lights, extension cords, bolts, washers, nails and a saw. We then jumped back into the Goucher van and made our way to the site, just a few blocks from the SHH office.
The block we were to work on was lined by classic Baltimore rowhouses, some sparkling and revamped thanks to Habitat, others crumbling and sealed off from the neighborhood with concrete in the windows and door. Our tasks were to board up the recently installed windows- new windows would surely be broken into- and to clean the four-story home in preparation for the electricians.
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