Recent Programs - Habitat for Humanity

Rotary Club Partners with Habitat for Humanity

by Bob Augustin Jr.

    Ken Nelson, President of the Lawrence County Chapter of  Habitat for Humanity, was the guest speaker at the August 15, 2008 meeting of the Lawrenceburg Rotary Club.   Habitat for Humanity International  is a non-profit,  ecumenical Christian housing ministry which endeavors to eliminate poverty housing and homeless by making affordable housing available to those in need.

   The Lawrence County Chapter of Habitat for Humanity was organized in 1995 and since that time has built eight homes for needy families.  Nelson explained that the mission of Habitat for Humanity is to build and rehabilitate decent houses for qualified families with the help of volunteers, skilled and unskilled, and the families themselves.  The houses built by Habitat are sold to the families at no profit and financed with affordable loans.  The monthly loan payments from the families are then used to finance the contstruction of new houses for other families.  The Habitat Home is not a hand out.  In addition to the monthly mortgage payments, the families are required to invest 400 hours of their own labor, sweat equity, in the construction of the home. 

    This year the Lawrenceburg Rotary Club is partnering with the local Habitat to construct a house for a qualified family.  The lot for the house was donated by Rotarian Harold Webb.  The Habitat house comes in a prefabricated kit made by Good Hope Homes in Hendrsonville, Tennessee.  The kit includes everything needed to build the house, from the lumber and the plumbing to the door knobs for the front door, and, of course, the instructions for assembly.   The Rotary Club will assist in the construction with funding and volunteer labor for the project.

    Pictured above are Polly Marsh, Rotary Club President, Ken Nelson, Habitat for Humanity, and Rotarian Ron Evans.