Community Highlight: Habitat for Humanity of Ionia County
Podcast Transcription
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Maddy: Hey everyone. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of PFCU’s Money Talk Podcast, I’m your host, Maddy. In this episode, I was welcomed into Habitat for Humanity of Ionia to speak with Stacy Moore, the Executive Director. She chats with me about the programs and resources that Habitat provides and it goes beyond building houses. Please welcome Stacy!
Stacy: My name is Stacy Moore. I am the Executive Director here at Habitat For Humanity of Ionia County. I have been director since 2016.
Maddy: Okay so it’s been a good, what are you on 7, well 6 years, going on 7?
Stacy: Yeah. Starting 7 in December.
Maddy: Yeah. Very nice, it flies by. What do you like about what you do?
Stacy: It is completely different than what I’ve ever done before. I spent 20-some years as a social worker in Ionia County and I wanted to be able to still stay here, I live here, my family’s here. And it’s kind of a step outside what I used to do but still has the social work aspect to it. We’re helping families in the community with housing and resources and different things like that. So, I still have my passion with the social work aspect of it but just in a little different avenue now.
Maddy: Right. So, you could go into a little bit more about what Habitat For Humanity does and all that stuff.
Stacy: Yeah, yup. So, Habitat, the idea of Habitat has been around since 1942. There was a biblical scholar, Clarence Jordan, who had this idea of people who needed homes helping other people build communities. Now Habitat is an international organization. In Michigan there are over 50 affiliates and we’re the 5th largest residential contractor in the US now.
Maddy: Wow.
Stacy: And Habitats are leaders in high performance homes and projects and stuff. So, that’s kind of how Habitat got started. Habitat used to have an Ionia County, excuse me, an Ionia, Portland and Lake Odessa Chapter and in 2013 they all merged into Ionia County Habitat for Humanity so now our central office is here but we cover the entire county. And we have lots of different projects that we do. I think probably what most people think of when they think of Habitat is Habitat homes. And one thing that I like to tell everybody is we’re a hand-up not a handout. A lot of people think, oh well they give houses away and we don’t give houses away but homes are one of the things that we do here. We provide real simple, affordable housing for partner families that we partner with. And there are some criteria to be a habitat home owner. We are currently, I think we’ve had over around 20 houses in Ionia County for Habitat homes. We have nine mortgages still right now, we finished our last Habitat home in 2019 and we just ended taking applications for our next home build which will start in the spring in Lake Odessa. But to be a homeowner, there has to be an established need for housing so, you’re housing isn’t safe, it’s not affordable, you don’t have a permanent address, willingness to partner. So, we do require sweat equity for everyone that we work with so whether it’s a home build or one of our other projects that I’ll explain. They have to have a demonstrated ability to pay so, even though our mortgages are 0% interest and no more than 30% of their income is their payment, they do still have a mortgage and a house payment just like everybody else does. We do help with like, down payment assistance, we ask that they pay closing costs because we teach them through education how to start saving for things like that. We don’t want to just build a home and set someone free if they’re not familiar with, you know, taking care of and paying for a home. And then the other big piece of being a partner family is the education. So, there’s a lot of education on credit and bills and how to maintain your home so, that’s a huge part is the education part of what we do. So, that’s one of our programs is our home build. We do work with local companies and Habitat around the US partners with different programs. Whirlpool will provide an oven and refrigerator for every Habitat home, we work with the prison build program, they build all our cabinets and countertops for our Habitat homes, Dow provides like the foam board that goes on the outside so, we work with programs like that. We also work with local contractors to try and get the cost of the home down when we build those.
Maddy: That’s really cool.
Stacy: That’s probably our biggest, our biggest thing that we’re known for, is our homes.
Maddy: Yeah.
Stacy: Our next, the next thing that we do is kind of an offshoot of that, it’s called a Brush with Kindness. It, again, is a… you have to be eligible, you have to go through the qualifications, you have to do sweat equity but it’s a much smaller scale. So, we do a lot of wheelchair ramps through this program, fixing porches, putting hand rails up for people, yard cleanup, landscaping. It helps low income Ionia County homeowners who struggle maintaining the exterior of their home to have sense of pride in it. So, where a house obviously takes a long time, you know, could be up to 6 months to build, a Brush with Kindness project usually is done in a day or a few days. And again, it can be anything from a wheelchair ramp in a house or we just partnered with Ionia Park and Rec and did some work on a mobile park so, it’s kind of the same concept as partner housing but it’s just a small project that we do. So, that is another program that we have. We also do Rock the Block which is kind of a one day, few hour impactful event that we do. It started in 2016, we took a block of West Washington, we had 80 volunteers from the banks and they did work on four houses. It took six hours and they made just this miraculous impact on those few houses and then the neighbors kind of caught on and it trickled down the road. And so, we do that, we try to do Rock the Block events a few times a year throughout the county where there’s a few homes that we focus on and we help fix up the exteriors of those. We’ve also done Rock Downtown Ionia where we do the businesses, so yeah, that’s another program that we do.
Maddy: You guys do a little bit of everything!
Stacy: We do!
Maddy: It’s so interesting. This is why I love doing this.
Stacy: Yeah.
Maddy: Because I, like you said, you think of, well they build houses.
Stacy: Yeah.
Maddy: You guys do so much more than that and I think the education component that you mentioned is so important…
Stacy: Yeah.
Maddy: …because you’re not just throwing people out there and say, you’re fending for yourself because so many people don’t get that education otherwise
Stacy: Right. And we start, we try and do that with not just our homeowners but people that we’re working with in any aspect because to even qualify we have to go through all of the education, we have to help maybe, clean up credit, we have to help, you know, pay off, or help them figure out how to pay off back bills and stuff. So, you never just want to quote on quote, fix something and walk away, you want it to be their forever home or their forever whatever it is we do so they can continue to maintain it.
Maddy: Right.
Stacy: So… I think the other big thing that we do, four years ago we opened our restore here in Ionia and we’re very small compared to most counties, excuse me, most Habitats in Michigan but we do have our restore here in Ionia and we accept donations when we’re open and we also do donation pickups once a week throughout the county so, we bought a box truck and we have some volunteers that go out and pickup donations.
Maddy: Oh okay, cool.
Stacy: And so, anything in our restore, well, most of the things in our restore are donated and we sell them at a reduced price and everything that’s made goes back into programming so, it doesn’t go to pay the electric or wages or anything like that, everything that’s made here in the restore goes back out into the community. So, some of the things we do appliances, furniture, home décor, tools, outdoor items, windows, doors. Kind of think like a Menards or a Home Depot…
Maddy: Right.
Stacy: …kind of store, but on a much smaller scale.
Maddy: That was the vibe I got when I walked in, there was like paint and all sorts of stuff.
Stacy: Yeah. We do a few things new. We have paint and tools that we get. Some of the larger affiliates are able to do flooring and rugs and stuff, we just don’t have the room. We are looking for a bigger building because it is a need that, you know, if we had the room, we could take more things. But yeah, most is donated and repurposed and put back out into the community so, that’s an amazing thing. So yeah, that’s our restore. Things are always changing, you never know what you’re going to get, it changes day to day in here, so. And then the other thing that I kind of wanted to talk about is how it’s possible because, when, if you look at Habitats, we are one of the smallest, other than the one in the UP. We’re literally a staff of two and a half, so 99% of what we do is done by volunteers. There are some affiliates like Kent County has three restores and they build 20 homes a year. We’re building one home every three years and we’re doing small projects throughout the year and we have this tiny restore but we’re still having an impact as small as we are. But, so a lot of it, we have myself, we have a part-time restore manager, and then we have a part-time staff person and everything else is volunteer based.
Maddy: Wow.
Stacy: So, so yeah, volunteers are a huge part of what we do, it can just an individual who’s interested in volunteering, we work with courts on people who are court ordered to do community service, we work with agencies like Michigan Works, corporate, like I said, last week we did a park clean-up, repaint job that was a volunteer from a local bank, a group of them. Sometimes we do it as a team building activity for different agencies, we also do like a women’s build every year where we get a group of women together and just do a build with women. Youth groups volunteer, so lots of different, volunteers come from lots of different places.
Maddy: Yeah.
Stacy: One thing that I think is really important is, if you’re interested in volunteering don’t think you have to know how to build.
Maddy: Okay, good to know!
Stacy: Because there’s so many opportunities.
Maddy: Yeah.
Stacy: You know, you can volunteer in the restore, it could be pricing items, stocking shelves, taking in donations. It could be on our construction projects, we hold a builder’s license here so, again, you don’t have to be skilled, we’ll teach you how to you know, use the hammer or whatever it is. Rock the Block, Brush with Kindness things, fundraisers, we always need help with but we find something for every skillset, especially when we require that sweat equity. If we’re building a wheelchair ramp, maybe they’re not able o come out to help with the construction part but can we get them involved? Can they serve lunch to the volunteers, can them come out and pick up nails out of the yard, can they pick up brush in the yard and take it, you know, to a burn pile or something so, if someone wants to volunteer, you don’t have to have the construction knowledge, there’s lots of things you can do.
Maddy: Good, that’s awesome. So, if anyone wants to volunteer, reach out, for sure.
Stacy: Yes, yes! What we do is we, applications are on our website or you can get them through me. And then I put you kind of in a spreadsheet and then as programs come up and what you’ve said you’re interested in, I just kind of reach out and say we have these coming up, if it’s something you’re interested in, let me know.
Maddy: Cool, good.
Stacy: Yeah.
Maddy: Perfect. You covered a lot.
Stacy: Yeah.
Maddy: That was great! Like I said, that’s so interesting because it’s all pretty much new information to me.
Stacy: Yeah.
Maddy: And I hope other people are getting that good insight too and feel the same way. What is the best way to reach out, just the website?
Stacy: Yup, we actually have a new website, finally after several years so, that you can find my information, you can find the applications for homes, for a Brush with Kindness, the volunteer application and forms are on there, there will also be like a calendar so as we have fundraisers or projects coming up that we need help for, those will be on there.
Maddy: Okay.
Stacy: So, the website, it’s got my, you know, you can call me or email me but that’s kind of a comprehensive place to go for everything.
Maddy: Right.
Stacy: As far as the restore, we do post on like marketplace and Facebook and things like that so, we try and let you know throughout the week as things change, what’s at the restore. So, that’s a good place to watch as far as like items for the store.
Maddy: Perfect. Do you have, like, regular annual fundraising events that you guys do that you would like to share?
Stacy: Yeah, we do. We have an annual golf outing every year
Maddy: Okay.
Stacy: And that’s usually at Huckleberry Creek in the late summer. We have been working for several years with Buddies on the Beach in Lake Odessa, we do a Bow to Stern event. And then we do small things throughout the year, we’re looking at at least one other big fundraiser. We were hoping, when we choose our partner family we have a selection committee that will choose our partner family and once we get them, kind of working with them on fundraisers and having them get really involved with that and that would count towards their sweat equity as well so, definitely watch the website, Facebook, social media for updates on those.
Maddy: Okay. Perfect!
Stacy: That’s kind of what we do in a nutshell.
Maddy: Thanks again to Stacy for taking the time to chat with me. I even got a tour of their restore- they have a lot of great stuff if you want to check it out or donate items. They are located at 113 S. Depot St. in Ionia. And make sure to visit their website at ioniahabitat.org for information on volunteering, their different programs, donating, fundraisers and the restore. Thanks for listening, see you next time!
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