Habitat for Humanity eager to provide a hand up, not a hand out

By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

There is a program in Crawford County that many people don’t know about – and it’s searching for a few good people to fill its home.

Habitat for Humanity of Richland and Crawford Counties, which is based at 2131 Park Ave. West in Ontario alongside its Habitat for Humanity Restore business, has two homes within its organization that it is looking to fix up and find a family to occupy them.

Veronna Drane, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Richland and Crawford Counties, admitted that many people in the two counties her organization serves do not know it exists locally, but she’s hoping to change that misconception. That is why the locally-based Habitat for Humanity is teaming up with Barbara Murray and the Mansfield Association of REALTORS.

“The whole goal is to help serve these families,” Drane explained. “When we look at families we’re looking in that middle to lower range.”

Drane added that the term “families” meant more than just parents and children. She said it could mean older individuals, a single parent, or even a single person – anybody that wants to apply. Drane cautioned, however, that the potential homeowner did need some kind of income, whether that came in the form of a regular paycheck, veterans benefits, disability, or social security.

“We are not a hand-out program – we are a hand-up program,” Drane stressed.

Those that wonder if they could afford it should not be too concerned. Drane said the monthly payments are never more than $400 per month, which includes taxes and insurance.

It may seem like an easy way to get a home for very little work, but Drane said there is a reason they refer to the future occupants as family partners. The families are referred to credit counselors, go through FDIC training, and are given the opportunity to take classes on saving and insurance.

“We’re really wanting to help them with that debt,” Drane said.

The biggest part of being a family partner, however, may be putting a little muscle and sweat into the home that they will live in and the organization that helped put them there.

“Their willingness to partner is probably the most important,” Drane said. “Are you willing to come in and take these classes and do this credit counseling? Are you willing to earn sweat equity hours, whether it be working on the house, volunteering in the community, helping out at the Restore and the office? Where are you going to help build that sense of ownership in this house?”

The idea that someone in Crawford or Richland county needs a better, safer, cleaner home should not come as too much of a surprise. Drane referred to cases that sounded like they came straight out of a Dickens novel: one family’s only source of heat came from a furnace in the middle of a kitchen floor with no ductwork while a family of 11 living in a five-room house by grain silos needed to put a brick against a hole in the wall to keep the rats out.

“That’s here. Not New York, not Chicago,” Drane said. “These are families or individuals that just need that hand up. They don’t want a hand out.”

Murray believed that is where she and her fellow realtors could step in and help.

“We’re all about housing, too,” Murray explained. “But it’s also, number one, about the community. When you think about just trying to side by side together and get lock step.

“I think the object is to get the word out there, what it does, how to qualify,” Murray said. “I’m from Crawford County . . . We have to get over there to Crawford County.”

Right now, the local Habitat for Humanity organization is looking to fix up the Bucyrus home that recently came open. It is a 10-year-old ranch-style home that has had only two residents since being built.

Drane has a wish list written out on a piece of notebook paper of what is needed at the Union Avenue home. It ranges from paint and doors all the way up to a new furnace. Some of the items are easy to come by through donations from partner companies, but she said every little bit helps, especially when it comes to big ticket items like furnaces.

“All of these things cost money and we’re looking to find that money,” Drane said, “but in the meantime, we’re looking for families to apply . . . We really are trying to find a good fit for that house.

“Just trying to find that match of a homebuyer that is willing to invest the time and the energy into the house,” Drane added.

Though Habitat for Humanity of Richland and Crawford Counties is eager for families to fill its available houses, it is just as eager for volunteers – whether they help out fixing up or building homes or put in a few hours at Habitat Restore.

Habitat for Humanity has seven houses spread across Crawford County: three in Galion, two in Crestline, and two in Bucyrus, which includes the Union Avenue home. It also has several properties-to-build in Galion and Crestline.

“We’ve just got to get the word out that we’ve got this house there,” Drane said. “Not only that – that we are going to continue to build in Crawford County. We want to work with those families in Crawford County – partner families, homebuyers – that need a hand up. We want those volunteers to come forward; we want to make that local connection in Bucyrus and Crestline, all throughout Crawford County.”

More information about Habitat for Humanity of Richland and Crawford Counties and the Restore business can be found at http://habitatofrcc.org or on Facebook at Habitat for Humanity of Richland & Crawford Counties and Richland County Habitat Restore. Applications for housing are available on the Habitat website.