Sandra and Tara on Humanity is taking applications

foreign hey everyone I'm like oh I should probably put the microphones up that will work sometimes hi good morning yes I'm on vacation as of tomorrow so my brain is absolutely fried and dead how is everyone's weekend I'm waiting that's a pregnant pause I also was going to try and tag Habitat for Humanity over here because I've got Tara and Sandra joining me on the show this morning hello ladies hi thanks for having us I am so thrilled to talk to you I've been friends with Dave hegner who's been a long time volunteer of yours for a really long time and he's always like very careful when he speaks about the organization he's like well I'm not speaking out of turn but because he's very much involved and I love your organization so introduce yourselves and tell everyone who you are and what it is that you do sure so I'll go first um first of all hi Dave thank you so much for that we love Dave hegner he's a great guy great volunteer awesome volunteer great human and um yeah he helps out so much I want to bring him next time yeah perfect it will come um so I'm Tara Cronin I'm the director of resource development for Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod hi I'm Sandra Harrison I'm the volunteer and community relations manager perhaps I have for meeting of Cape Cod we're so happy to be here and tell you a little bit about habitat and what's going on in organization and upcoming events you have so many groups and this is a nationwide situation habitat is but we've we've got a special group here on the cape and housing is the first thing that people talk about good morning Diana thank you so much for joining us we really have a housing issue crisis on the cape getting people homes and and safe homes so maybe talk about your organization and how you came to uh be involved in it Tara sure so although um so yeah so habitat is a it's an international organization they build homes all over the world and we are what's called an affiliate so Cape Cod is its own entity we do all our own fundraising we do all our own builds we um so we're it's an affiliate so we're uh we don't get funding from International we get the name from internet right we follow the rules of international stuff like that so we're definitely Cape Cod focused and yeah we're in a huge housing crisis um it is really really tough it is the truth out there thank you for checking in Heather she's like yeah we're all watching it's bad all right hold on now I'm going to fix my own volume problems sorry Tara go ahead um so let me see so I got involved with habitat I've been there about seven years yeah and I actually have a kind of a cool background story with habitat that I'll tell you I bought an affordable house as a resale uh just about 15 years ago so I wouldn't be on the cape without an affordable home I was home and I lived in you know crappy apartment after crappy apartment and I was Googling affordable homes on the cape and this house popped up and it was a Habitat Resale so our houses are affordable that we build and we build with the homeowner and they are deed restricted to always be affordable so you can't flip it so the house might be worth five or six hundred thousand dollars after you build it but it's always going to be affordable so if they decide to move that's that's fine that's great it goes back to someone else that needs it that's how I actually bought my house is it was an affordable three bedroom in Yarmouth beautiful house and then um moved in with my kids we got a couple of dogs we put a swing set up you know seven or eight years goes by and I see a job with habitat and I say wow they built my house I want to go work yeah be a part of this because we wouldn't be here without it so that's kind of a little bit about my background and habitat's been on the cape for 35 years this is our 35th Anniversary amazing yep and we built in every town on the cape and we have uh I'll just tell you real quick some current builds so we have 10 houses in Falmouth that we're in the middle of building right now um seven are done three are still under construction they'll be done in a couple of weeks two in Chatham that are done and we're gonna talk about that later uh 3M sandwich and then we have an upcoming build in Brewster and and then Wellesley and Dennis and Yarmouth so it's just yeah your job is never done so then I'll let Sandra talk a little bit sure um I have heard of habitat for many of Cape Cod for a long time I'm actually a five minute walk from the office um when I was in college many many years ago I did a turn of a spring break program twice and that's how I'm familiar with habitat um so I've always been you know passionate about you know affordable housing and how it's so much of a need you know all over the United States but on Cape I mean it's it's so needed um because we have people that are working in multiple jobs just to afford rent or their mortgage and we need to make sure our local families are staying on Cape so we can have a sustainable you know ecosystem of of businesses and and you know have the teachers and support to teach the kids and whatnot so affordable housing is huge and um one of so actually going back to the home dedication ceremony of Chatham um it's on August 21st it's a Monday at 4 on George Roger Road South in Chatham it's two homes that will be dedicated it these people are working in our community there are some that are in Harwich and I I don't remember where the other family works but um you know these are hard-working families that um they have earned um you know the opportunity to be selected in the lottery and they've done Sweat Equity hours at working alongside volunteers and so yeah they can't just jump in there they've got to get in and physically do a little bit of labor at some point because I think it's so important how this program really works you're invested yep and um you know working alongside volunteers to make the affordable home and then they it's they purchase the home these homes aren't free right these homes are approximately 192 000 um at 100 and 2000 K to purchase but they cost way more than that to build so you know that's where you know supporters Beyond volunteers like our our sponsors and our donors are you know incredibly helpful to make you know our organization successful and have affordable homes available for purchase so home dedication everyone's welcome um you can find more information out on our website as well as social media I'm gonna head it back to Tara to talk about applications sure can I talk a little bit about how families are chosen you could talk about whatever it is that you want you guys have the floor here at the spotlight I just want to know more about it and I think everyone does I think this is interesting to me so um we have an application just so you know we have applications open right now for Brewster to they're going to be gorgeous three bedroom houses really really nice a woman named Beth Finch donated her land to us that's so incredible she said like here's my yard I'm not using it so we subdivided the land and we're building there we've got some really fantastic home sponsors but I I do want to talk about so August 14th is the deadline so anybody in need of an affordable home got two weeks to get your act together get it together so you can go to our website habitat capecod.org and you can apply I would encourage anybody to apply if you don't get it this time you might get it the next time many many families will tell me this is the third or fourth time uh what is that process like is it intense it's intensive okay so there's a huge application package like right now we have people in the office and um they're taking an application so say you want to apply for a habitat house you've got to get your bank statements your job history everything for a mortgage plus you have to prove you need it you've got to need it so it doesn't necessarily mean you're homeless it could just be you know my apartment is three thousand dollars a month and I work four jobs and this is horrible well I can't keep it up yeah um there's many situations where you're going to need an affordable home you've got to be willing to do this wet Equity as Sandra mentioned so that's 250 hours per adult building and that's tough if you have three jobs and three kids and now you can spend one day a week getting a sitter it's hot out coming and building your house it's a commitment it's hard um these people are heroes Your Heroes for filling out the application as far as I'm concerned and then Your Heroes for dealing with all of this and then um if you are selected so they've got to be willing to build they've got to have decent credit because they're going to get a mortgage as Sandra mentioned and they're going to buy that house when the house is done so we have this long application process say 100 people apply nearly only 30 are going to get it to the lottery yeah that means they need it they got the right income they checked all the boxes everything's right yeah so say 30 out of 100 get to this Lottery take a paint can everyone gets a number mix it up and Pull and that's how our families are chosen and then they have that long it takes almost a year uh it can be even longer with covet and delays it could be 18 months so it takes a long time to build the house and then at the end they buy the house because you know what every single step of the process is probably tedious and stressful but at the same time so is not having a home so I mean you got to pick your battle there at least this one's towards something and these houses are beautiful they're granite countertops solar um someone in Falmouth a whole my homeowner she just sent me her electric bill and it was negative thirteen hundred dollars because I need I need so efficient I need Habitat to come in and do a rehab attack maybe someday we'll do that we all need a rehabitat seriously it is energy efficient for sure that me that seems to be the big struggle right now with the rising cost of all of that stuff and I love that you're mindful while building these so that yes it might be barely affordable to someone right now but the sustainability you want them to stay in this house you want them to be able to afford this house you don't want to be flipping these houses no no one's flipping for money but you don't want people going in and out of these houses you want them to grow with it they barely ever um I don't think we've had many resales I know I bought a resale but if I had to guess I'd say it was maybe under seven um I don't think it happens a lot people need to say hey you want to stay on the cape so and another thing about habitat that I love to bring up is so you have to have that income that qualifies you and um but once you buy the house the sky's the limit really so you can go back to school it's not like a section eight it's not like affordable housing sometimes where I was in the situation when I was younger every time I got a raise it was like taken away because my health insurance went up because it was fighting scale my daycare went up so I would try to get a raise or get promoted or work more hours and actually be poorer because oh yeah so when you own your habitat house you want to go back to school you want to open up your own business whatever you want to do your mortgage is going to stay at that eight or nine hundred whatever it was when you bought it like Sandra said I think our last round of houses maybe a hundred and eighty thousand dollars wow you can imagine what that mortgage is and you never have to leave and it's beautiful and you own it yeah that's just a gift forever that's wonderful uh good morning Allison and Tanya Betsy says Tara secure networks says hello I call you guys all the time hi guys thanks so much for joining us this morning we're talking to Tara and Sandra about Habitat for Humanity the applications are doing by August 14th you've got people to help with the um applications right yes it's not just like fill out this huge packet good luck to you so we have a variety of um online and in-person workshops led by um Marianne who worked in our office um to answer questions but we also have an office team that goes through the applications um if someone's interested in applying and they have questions either call our office or email applications at habitat capecod.org and we can have some on reach out to you and answer your questions going back to actually the application period it's really unique because it's a veteran build so there is a veteran preference and those veterans we got something yes those veterans um it's not a location um restriction so it's really unique so one home will be for a veteran and we also very cool so just DD214 and they're able to get in there and to fill out the other stuff um I I don't know what form that they need to do but that's a great question for um our our staff Marianne our volunteers but it can be active as well so it's a great opportunity so if you know someone have them apply and Tara the Ami levels were raised for this right so we've done something new that I'm really excited about tooth all these good things are happening like the permaculture and The Yards we're doing more of that too like the next excellent there's all so many good things and one of the more exciting things that I'm happy about right now is so there is the vet build so one of those houses in Brewster that I mentioned thank you for amazing is going to be for a veteran we apply so apply you got to qualify um and the other house so we have decided in um from now on when we do multi-home builds some of them are going to be instead of I I get a little fuzzy with the details but I think you have to make under 60 of the area of median income to apply for a habitat okay right now it's going to be under 80. so there's going to be two levels so that means people who make even more money can apply it doesn't cut out the lower income but it allows somebody who's making say ninety thousand ninety five thousand to apply because you need it too you just because you make 90. they're the middle of the road because they get no no breaks anywhere so it's almost like it's harder for you to be making that little bit more money because no one helps you with anything everybody says that because it is the worst there's no help for you just above that line but not enough and you just get you get stuck so that's so that's great so I like people to see I'll give you like an example let's see if I can see it without my so if you are a family of three say you're a single parent with two kids the maximum income could be 82 50 so 82 000 um would be your max so that's a pretty good yeah that's nice before for a family of four ninety two thousand dollars um so this is great it's just going to open it up to more people and I'm really really happy about that yeah because what's the average house on the cape right now 700 600 000 isn't that insane yeah tough out there it's real tough we were just talking you can't you can't get a break anywhere the grocery store I bought like some stuff to I brought lunches and dinner for one night and I spent like 170 dollars exactly I know just the rising cost of absolutely everything so if this is maybe a way that you can see yourself having permanent housing here on the cape and owning it which is really important I feel like I love that ownership piece I love that they have to volunteer for it also because once again Sweat Equity when you've done the work and all of the Hoops that you've jumped through to have this amazing thing you're gonna care for it more oh yeah and they learn so many skills they shingle their houses they're installing the flooring they're just learning everything that's self-confidence and it really does build community the community is when we have these 10 home builds three home builds whatever it is even my house is a single house in the neighbor I'm a part of that neighborhood yeah I'm never leaving um we have built a real Community there and there's a community with the volunteers there's friendships because most of our volunteers are a little older yeah talk about that volunteer base that you have because to motivate people to do anything is amazing but to motivate them to build homes oh that's pretty incredible it's incredible because you have um those who may be experience and then and people who have no experience picking up a hammer and you see that collaboration that mentorship of someone who you know if they just retired um they're trying to like meet new people and they come onto the site and they're like I don't know how to do anything and then you have people who have been volunteering for years they take them under their wing they show them how to you know do hurricane brackets and shingle I love that there's one woman on our sandwich site who um sweetest person in the world and she wanted into shingle and people took her under the wing volunteers and you know every time I see her I'm like oh I love your shingling um and you know and she's like damn right you see that glow and that satisfaction and she's just come back for more and more and wants to make that difference and our volunteers are so passionate they love coming in our filters aren't just on the build site um we also have a volunteer team deconstruction um so they come into your house you schedule appointment they come into your house and they do an intake with you and say okay you want to donate your cabinets your appliances furnishings and all our person would go like yes that we can definitely take that and we sell it at a restore and then they'll schedule a date they'll come and then they'll take all this down one of the testimonials we gotten recently was you know the person's kitchen was cleaner after all this stuff's been removed from their house then you know before and you know it goes back to affordable homes those proceeds from those sales and it keeps stuff out of landfills where you're using that material um and you know people like you are buying that it's a good it's a good circle of life for a home anything yeah if you've never been to a restore I definitely suggest that you go into one we regularly check them out uh both of them in Dennis and Falmouth because we're always doing something to this house and there are always new people moving in and moving out and people that need space because I just find even amongst my friends we have j-1s I have teens we have tweens we have grandparents now and people are we have the transient house the house that people always go to when they need a space to have and my husband's always like well let's put a skylight in there or let's go look for the most random of things you could find at the restore my whole house is restore because I have kids and dogs yeah so I'm like I'm not is going to break because my son's gonna jump on it exactly and I I just got and it's nice stuff it we we take quality stuff so if you want to donate your furniture or Home Goods you have doors or couches or kitchen tables daddy grass Windows window uh also fairly recently I found the latch to my sliding door in my backyard at a restore so I got to replace the latch so it actually locks again they're smart awesome locking you out people but it's just like the most random of parts that you might need that you can find there whether it's door handles or just like the most any I laughed because I always check stuff out and I found wallpaper there's buttons like you just name some random thing that you might need to build your house and they have it at the restore so go check them out keeps it up landfills and it's fun Treasures it's different every time yeah you go and you need to I always laugh because I'm like if you see something you like you need to put a tag on it right away you cannot walk away yeah because somebody else is going to snap and it's different every day you don't know what's going to get donated and what's going to be there but they're wonderful so that Yarmouth restore on White's path yeah Falmouth is Gifford Street yep so go visit a restore anytime good morning Alice and will thank God for her consignment and thrift stores yeah so this is a thrift store for your house it's pretty incredible they've got rugs furniture they have books now yeah it's literally a treasure chest every time you go in because you can find some really nice pieces that you might not be able to afford you know full price that are like high-end and then some stuff that like you can just need in your bathroom like a vanity and you know doors but going back to the restore that's one of probably our most flexible volunteer opportunities uh um so we do have staff that um man the store but also are you know really I can't even forgot the word um we rely so much on our volunteers to help man the store run the register so when you go in there you're most likely going to be greeted by a volunteer um that who are essential to our stores and our organization but um volunteers there's literally spread out throughout our organization we have um when those applications come in we have a team that reviews them then when the um homeownership program selects those applicants to move forward and get in in the lottery um though so for Brewster those two homeowners will be um guided through the process with a family Partners so there's two per each homeowner and they're they can ask them anything okay what you know what should I do on this oh don't don't buy a car like you know that will affect your mortgage you know and they're walking through the the process of okay this is how you take care of your home and so they're making sure that they're set up for success and then we have all Office volunteers where they might be helping us soft envelopes for an appeal that's going out we also have volunteers at our right for homes event that is happening on September 17th um we haven't even gotten to that good morning Susan thanks for checking in we're talking about Habitat for Humanity all the volunteerism opportunities you've got teens you've got retirees you've got people that are kind of just looking for a space this is your space because it is so flexible you don't have to be actually building homes or lifting heavy things you can man phones and do other things so I wanted that to be clear yeah I mean we have volunteers like I don't want to build but what else is there oh for me we have ton of tons of opportunities and actually we are one of the beneficiaries of New England endurance events this year and they have events coming up in September um I want to say it's the 9th 16th and 23rd volunteers from our organization or if you want to get part of our organization you can volunteer through them and put habitat Cape Cod as the other team and we actually get money from your volunteerism through them for us and also we're getting um funds from athletes that are donating as well so incredible a unique way to get involved and with that opportunity you can bring your kids 12 plus um you can they can volunteer right alongside you um with habitat or beginning age is 16. so it's just a level of what's going on you know climbing ladders part of our tools that does have a little bit of restrictions but Juniors and seniors in high school exactly come and and do that now talk about the ride just a little bit because this is a new fundraiser right or have you done this every year this is our sixth Annual Ride for homes um it's at um you're taking away Tara uh let's see so I have to look at my cheat sheets here so it's the sixth Annual Ride for homes it's Sunday September 17th so there's three different rides it's a bike ride um and it's on the canal it's a nice bike ride and you know what September it's gorgeous there's not a lot of traffic it's flat yeah for the whole family of the 20 mile route on the canal and 30 mile route through Woods Hole and back it's beautiful it's gorgeous we have a cookout after we've got a bar we've got music we've got um all kinds of fun stuff to do it's a it's just a fun event for the whole family we normally expect around 100 Riders and okay if I can't remember how much we raised but probably like eighty thousand dollars something like that it's a big fundraiser so as Sandra touched on before with habitat you kind of hear like oh all right well they use volunteers so the Labor's free and the house cost 170 000 and the family buys it so what do they need to fundraise for right like before I work there I was like why do they fundraise so much we fundraise because the houses really cost like 350 000 to build this yeah infrastructure costs there's there's roads there's foundations there's we've all been to the grocery store we know how much things cost right now and it's exponential at best cost a lot so we're always looking for donors we're looking for more ways to raise money because we're all really part of the same team we're all building yeah you know a community on the cape for trying to keep families here so can you can you volunteer can you donate can you sponsor a house can you do a ride bring the kids bring your family come down check it out um there's lots of fun ways to um to raise the much needed funds that we need because we we have bills to pay too like I said we've got landscapers we've got plumbers a lot of people donate their services but they can't donate everything they live here too yeah yeah so and we don't have our volunteers do like the electricity and they don't do the roofing we have like really great like Fraser construction donates the roofs to us we have a lot of yeah like big companies that well that's nice because once again that just helps them you're recycling the materials you're keeping it here you're showing people how to use the things that we have and you're doing energy audits when you walk into the restores you're giving people all the opportunity to save money recycle reduce and we're we're on a man-made Island here we need to be able to reuse all of the stuff that we have and I think it's so important that our volunteers are doing that and you're working every angle of that whole cycle yeah I I mean actually going back to the Brewster bill that's kind of October November is going to be our kickoff our volunteers um and their work never ends yes it doesn't end because Summer friends um Bob Harding was a long time volunteer he was a World War II Marine vet his friends um raised enough funds to be a house sponsor and sponsoring the house and then the other home um the Church of the Holy Spirit raised funds in honor of nat Merit and Nat Goddard and Gilbert so it's a really special beautiful build we had a lot of Volunteers in like a local church we had a a significant donation from a person to and then we had this group of volunteers that raised money so both homes one homes in memory of Bob Harding that's the vet billed because he was a World War II vet and he volunteered with us until he was 95 years old oh man he was like he didn't look 95 um but he was a great guy volunteer with us for years and years and passed away a couple of years ago and his friends wanted to do a vet build in his memory the other house the funds raised are in memory of Gilbert Merit in that Goddard who were two other volunteers that we had that were amazing lovely men that both passed away in the past couple of years so it's going to be a lot of love on these builds and it'd just be um just with that whole Community Vibe too where the lands donated and we've got like well these people are buying a home in the in the community and they're being part of this community now so that's a really nice introduction to hey we're living here now and this is our community also I love that it makes my makes my heart feel good thanks for joining us we love it it's such a good feeling to work for habitat and be surrounded like I'm happy every single day and I I don't think I realized how many good people there are in the world I you know I don't really like or keep up with stuff anymore because it's so depressing it's okay you're in a safe space like just being like surrounded by these volunteers and their families it's good vibes all around it it's just a happy you know it's a you're giving someone a home yeah you're getting a home forever so it's such a happy ending yeah I mean the happiness is like on like ongoing you see these people that have like volunteered their time and they're so excited to go on to the next one and you have the homeowners that you know come to events with us and they're just so grateful and you know they're looking to volunteer their time after doing all that stuff well yeah you got to pay it forward yeah you that's really nice and then on the you know in the next few years we're adding 20 plus homes onto the Cape and it's still not enough it's never going to be enough and you know we're having up-and-coming builds in Yarmouth Dennis and Wellfleet expected maybe the end of next year and beginning of the year after and then um you know more to come but you know it it's all because of the community of Cape Cod and volunteering donating um sponsoring it's we're making sure that we have you know the future that stays here so we appreciate you and we thank you um for everything good morning Amy rtb thank you so much for joining us today Habitat for Humanity where do people find you uh the best way to find out all of this information because we kind of threw everything and do we cover everything I don't know what else I feel like we've said so much right and the kitchen sink too we'll take that also we'll recycle it online and Facebook Instagram yeah so we are on Facebook Instagram LinkedIn um Twitter we have our website habitat.org where you can learn more about us sign up for the ride um learn more about the builds we also um oh my gosh two weeks to get your application in so call them they'll hold your hand you can cry it's fine you're not ready now that's okay start getting ready for the next round because it's going to be a lot of houses and done your arm I think it's like seven houses in Europe that's exciting yeah and what's built oh and the blitz build is coming up that's going to be I think in Dennis that's uh can we talk about the blue yes so there's an organization on the cape um if you you should Google it it's called H brackets the home builders and remodelers Association of Cape Cod it's all the local trades people so they have like this organization they've got a website so it's plumbers electricians it's the people who do the floorings it's everything every two years they come together to build a habitat house in one week they literally show up at the crack of dawn on Monday and they're done Friday at like noon and it's competitors working together that's awesome everything's donated and it is just the most amazing and we kind of just stay out of the way we bring lunch we bring donuts you know we're like okay and watch the camaraderie it really is it's beautiful so that's coming up in December that'll be next year but I just like to give them a big shout out all those Wonder we've got so many just local business you know Shepley is a huge partner to us we just couldn't appreciate them anymore um just so many organizations I would definitely tell people to check out hbrac and check out our website and just see how not only community volunteers but local businesses and we're all part of the same team right the volunteers the fundraisers the local businesses the staff came applying people like you thank you very huge hey I'm here for the community and cam yeah they've I'm sure they've gotta let's talk so cam is like our we love them so much Cam came to us I think about him two months ago Cam's always been a partner with us through the blitz build and and they had given a lot of the you know when they get the dents and dings to the restore it's still good stuff sell it at the restore but they came to us a couple months ago and they said what we want to do is we want to donate all the appliances for all your houses for your upcoming build so they are doing the washers the dryers the um the stove the dishwasher incredible everything in the house is donated by cam we love them so much and we just couldn't be more grateful and uh just top of that that's so amazing because that's really a serious cost while building a home I've needed a dishwasher for like three right we'll make it work it's fine I'm like guys we're going down the three plates you wash it you put it away wash it put it away that's what my husband said he's like we're going back to when you were kids this is your plate in Cotton Bowl and Spoon and that's it watch it make it work it's yours game on seriously expensive uh-huh but I had someone come to my house this weekend my aunt came to visit me she's like you need a new fridge like I need a new everything but do you know what I do for a living right I'm the last to get that fixed seriously so please get involved some way shape or form with Habitat for Humanity and uh start giving back to our community because you know what I'm sick of hearing people say we don't have enough homes we don't have enough this unless you're doing something about it you have no room to say anything about it so get out there and hold a hammer for all I care help these people and apply definitely apply again we need the homeowners too they're they're partnering with us just as much as everybody else so we need you to and I'll push that out through an application a couple of our veterans organizations and remind them that this is here for sure yeah we really want to get an event into house and that'll just bring it all kind of Full Circle I love it Habitat for Humanity Tara Sandra thank you so much for all the hard work that you do and for for coming out on a Monday not the easiest day thank you we got us up early yeah right I am really taking the rest of the week off sort of Hank is going to be filling in for me so make sure let's support him over there lemonadio.com is where you can listen to us Roku TV Amazon Alexa play lemonadeio radio I will talk to you soon have a great week everyone thank you bye that was amazing thank you so much thank you for having us really really nice