Why Habitat?
Recent poverty figures show that 15.7 million American children are living in poverty - the highest number in three decades. For the past two decades, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, homelessness has increased faster among families with children than among any other group of Americans. Homeless children have higher rates of infant mortality, school absenteeism, more severe health problems, and a reduced chance of being immunized than other poor children. Children without permanent housing suffer physically, emotionally, and educationally, according to a report by the Children's Defense Fund. Harper's Index discloses that the federal government plans to demolish 100,920 units of public housing by the year 2000 while planning to construct only 24,679 units by that same date.
Habitat for Humanity is an international, volunteer based, non-profit organization which seeks to address these problems by creating partnerships between people in need of decent, affordable housing and volunteers who want to become actively involved in eliminating poverty housing in their community. Future homeowners work with volunteers to build houses and to improve their homes, their lives, and their neighborhoods.
To accomplish its mission, Habitat for Humanity depends solely upon the skills and energy of community volunteers. All construction and administrative tasks are performed by volunteers, and all materials are donated or paid for with donated funds.
Families selected in our area are chosen solely by Habitat for Humanity of Roswell and make down payments in cash and sweat equity. Each family contributes five hundred hours of volunteer labor to build their home and the homes of others. Upon completion of construction, the home is sold to the selected family. Habitat for Humanity of Roswell holds the mortgage and deposits mortgage payments in a revolving fund used to build houses for more Habitat families.
To continue to grow and build in Roswell, we need your assistance. Currently we need funds to pay for kitchen and bathroom cabinets, countertops, and flooring materials and to connect the water and sewer services to the house. We also need individuals with sheetrock experience to join the building crew. As we near completion of our first house and look toward building our second, we need more individuals who are familiar with construction. The building crew meets at the site at 6002 S. Schneider every Saturday morning at 8:00 am. Donations of building materials and tools are also welcome. If you wish to donate time, money, or materials to Habitat for Humanity of Roswell, please call 624-2138 or mail your donation to P.O. Box 254, Roswell, New Mexico 88202-0254. If you wish to learn more about Habitat for Humanity of Roswell, our next Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 10, 1997, at The Coffee Bar at 305 N. Main. Please join us.
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