For this essay I will post the talk I have given several times for Habitat, when they ask me to speak as one of their homeowners.
"My name is Carrie Ellen. I am the mother of one child, an 18-year-old young man named Daniel. We are one of about 20 families who became new Habitat homeowners in 2007.
Until that time, renting a two-bedroom place was not affordable for me, even though I worked full time and was a good employee. I was paying bills with help from family but often not able to buy food. My son had our one bedroom, and my bed was in the front room. Mold was a big problem in our apartment. I looked all over for different housing, but within the city of Portland, a better situation was unaffordable. If we moved far enough out where the prices of rent were lower, the cost of transportation offset any savings. My son was attending Benson high school, which is a great school, and we didn’t want to lose that opportunity.
I visited almost every social service agency for help. Much of the time I was told that I earned too much money to qualify.
Finally, I applied to Habitat which set off a chain reaction of major improvements to our lives.
Performing our 500 sweat equity hours reunited me with my son, and gave him a taste of what hard work is. Our family, and I’m sure many other Habitat families, put in far more than our required 500 hours, just because we loved going. I am no longer required to give any time to Habitat, but I do because of my love for the organization and the staff.
The construction site experience gave me confidence to enter a higher paying field as an apprentice in the painters union.
This, in turn, gave me benefits and a pension. Last year, for the first time, I crossed into the income level where I became a taxpayer. And I have not been on any form of social assistance for about two years.
My son and I are a lot closer now, since we do not have the strain of the oppressively small living arrangements. He is able to host friends. I think he feels more dignified, and that he has a higher optimism about life. I know I do.
For the first time, I have ties with neighbors, because I expect to stay the 20 years of my mortgage and beyond, just like they do, because they are Habitat homeowners. The neighborhood kids who live behind us in the HAP apartments visit regularly and have been learning a lot about gardening.
I would have been happy if I could even have found a decent place to rent. But renting means that you can never have equity to fall back on when you get sick or old, and you can never even think about retiring, because the cost of living will always increase more than our wages. These thoughts brought anxiety to me all the time.
I don’t believe that if the city had given me a certain amount of money to rent a more suitable apartment that the same events could have taken place.
Finally, I would like to close with a word about Habitat, as an organization:
What impresses me about Habitat, more than any other program, is the way each input of resources has a way of expanding exponentially.
Let me explain:
In most programs, a dollar in becomes a dollar out.
In Habitat, that dollar will be working with corporations, and private donors. That dollar gets matched by the time of volunteers whose lives have taken on an exciting purpose. That dollar will be matched to a homeowner family who is rescued from unbearable conditions, who change from being taxpayer burdens to taxpayers. And that dollar that is invested will be returned by the community’s goodwill toward the positive reputation that goes hand in hand with Habitat."