Falmouth Faith Community Sponsors Habitat For Humanity Build; FCC Donates $5k
The First Congregational Church of Falmouth has donated $5,000 in support of one of the 10 homes being built by Habitat For Humanity on Willett Way in East Falmouth.
One of the six homes currently under construction as part of phase one is being sponsored entirely by the faith community in Falmouth and neighboring towns.
The Reverend Jonathan Drury of the First Congregational Church said that his congregation, along with others, has the pleasure of serving as what Habitat calls a “home sponsor,” meaning they pledge about $50,000 to the build in order to cover the cost of construction materials and professional services such as plumbing and electrical work.
“It’s a substantial cost for these houses but certainly much, much less than what a house would cost if you built otherwise in Falmouth today,” Mr. Drury said. “And of course, all of the work is done by volunteers. Aside from the initial startup cost for the materials, the house is entirely built by both volunteers and by the people who are going to be living in the homes.”
Ginny Irving, director of resource development at Habitat For Humanity, said the first phase of the build off of Barrows Road began in December and will likely finish up at the end of this year. Habitat is planning to break ground on the remaining four homes for the build this summer
“It’s tough when you start in winter, but it makes it a little slow these first few months,” she said. “But I was there yesterday and those volunteers are working so hard despite the weather, and same with the homeowners that are out there working alongside them building their homes.”
It truly is a community effort, she said, with people all over town from various organizations stepping up to help. Some volunteers are making quilts for the families when they move in, and some of the church youth groups are planning to build bookcases for the children.
“We give every child who’s moving into the home their own bookcase,” Ms. Irving said. “It’s so sweet and they can supply them with books and toys and stuff to go on the bookshelf. It’s just such a great way to involve everyone.”
The First Congregational Church’s outreach committee is responsible for organizing the church’s $5,000 donation, Mr. Drury said. The committee was prepared to offer a $2,000 donation to Habitat For Humanity until the idea was raised to generate more funds through matching donations from congregation members.
“I thought that was a great idea,” Mr. Drury said. “We then brought it to the attention of the membership, that the outreach committee would match up to $2,000 worth of giving. Every dollar that members pledged to Habitat, we would give an extra dollar from the outreach committee.”
The $2,000 in matching funds being pledged by the committee were already given by congregation members, Mr. Drury said, so there was a potential that they’d feel as though they’d already donated enough. But what ultimately happened was quite the opposite.
Not only did congregation members quickly raise $2,000 to match the outreach committee’s donation, but they actually raised an additional $1,000 as well, for a grand total of just over $5,000.
“It was very generous, very unexpected,” Mr. Drury said. “Especially in light of all the financial uncertainty that we are all living with right now. I think part of it is that we all agree that there should be affordable housing, that everybody should be able to afford a home.”
Mr. Drury recalled working with Habitat For Humanity as a high schooler through church missions.
“I’ve had plenty of opportunities to work with a lot of different mission programs and without a doubt, Habitat is the best,” he said. “They’re very well organized and the fact that they include the people who are going to be living in the homes, that they’re included in the actual building of the homes really establishes a sense of teamwork and camaraderie and community, which I think is critical to this type of work.”
The housing market, Mr. Drury said, is a difficult place for many to navigate, especially those on the lower end of the income spectrum: teachers, municipal workers, firefighters and others.
“I would imagine that if you’re new to that position, the likelihood of being able to find a home that you could afford to buy is pretty much zero,” he said. “So what does that mean for us as a community long term? That’s something we need to think about, and one of the ways that we are hoping to be able to respond to that is by building more affordable housing units in town.”
Habitat For Humanity and affordable housing for all is an easy cause to get on board with, Mr. Drury said, especially during such divisive times.
“We can’t agree on everything, but I think we can agree that everybody should be able to afford to own their home,” he said. “Especially if they’re willing to put in the time and the effort and the work to make it happen.”