35 Years of Habitat for Humanity

2011 marks the 35th year that Habitat for Humanity International has been building safe, decent and affordable homes for those in need of decent shelter. Our local affiliate - Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County - was founded until 2000 and we are proud to be part of the greater Habitat family and celebrate this big milestone. 

Why Habitat for Humanity is needed? We urge you to read this wonderful page on the Habitat website emphasizing the need for adequate shelter around the world. It goes without saying that shelter is a basic need for survival, yet millions live in substandard housing. We at Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County are proud to be a part of an organization that has built over 400,000 homes around the world and is committed to ending poverty housing.

It is inspiring to think that since 1976 Habitat for Humanity has provided homes in over 3,000 communities around the world - including the Habitat homes built here in Santa Barbara!

Westmont volunteers at the 2010 Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival.

The affiliate's first wall raising.

Habitat for Humanity is a worldwide organization and works in all 50 states and internationally. Check out this link to view all of the locations.

I Helped Build It! Did You?

Limited edition "I Helped Build It!" photos available to anyone who volunteered at Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara's San Pascual site. Display it with pride!

Contact here if you'd like to receive your very own.

What's for sale at the ReStore?

Did you know that all proceeds from the ReStore go directly to Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County? This means that when you shop at the Habitat ReStore you not only get excellent deals on gently used home improvement supplies (ie: sinks, tile, cabinets, light fixtures, and a whole lot more), but you are also helping Habitat fund the building of more affordable housing in Santa Barbara. 

Items the ReStore sales (and receives as donations): doors, windows, plumbing supplies, tubs, sinks, faucets, tile, cabinets, garage doors, mailboxes, light fixtures, chandeliers, ovens, dishwashers, refrigerators, stove-tops, flooring, mantels, fireplace screens, and much, much more.

Below are some photos from the store. We also encourage shoppers to check out our slide-show of new inventory. We update it often!

The Habitat ReStore is located at 6725 Hollister Avenue in Goleta (map).

Santa Barbara's Volunteer All-Stars

Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Santa Barbara Habitat for Humanity Volunteer Open House last Saturday! It was a wonderful day to show off the new homes to all of our faithful volunteers.

A highlight of the day was watching volunteers point out the particular sections they helped with. "Oh I remember installing that vent" or "glad to see that piece of siding I helped with is still there!" We are proud to show off the completed homes and love seeing how proud and invested volunteers are as well. 

Speaking of invested, we have tallied up the volunteer hours from the San Pascual construction site! Here's a snapshot of the poster with our "Volunteer All-Stars." Look at how many volunteers put in over 100 hours at the site! We are blessed to have such a supportive community here in Santa Barbara.

Why "countless" you may ask? If you volunteered at the site than you undoubtedly met Bill McCullough. He volunteered every day - 6 days a week - and put in more than 8 hours a day. There really is no number that could accurately quantify the hours Bill worked so we use "countless" and are enormously grateful for his help and sunny disposition.

Non-Profit Spotlight on Habitat for Humanity Santa Barbara

A few months back the Non-Profit Spotlight came by our Habitat for Humanity Santa Barbara offices to tape an interview that aired on a local TV channel throughout the fall. We are proud to share the video with you.

First Photo of Habitat's New Property in Santa Barbara

Last month we told you about the new property that Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County acquired. Well here is the first picture of the property:

Now if you know your Santa Barbara landmarks, you know that the infamous "cow building" is on the corner of Milpas and E. Canon Perdido Streets. Seeing as how we are going to spend the next few years looking at that cow, we decided to do some research and learned that the cow has been living in Santa Barbara since the 1940s! Who knew? (Edhat has a great article on the "Milpas Cow History.")

Saturday Activities Courtesy of Habitat

Ah Saturday. The start of a three day weekend and the weather couldn't be nicer here in sunny Santa Barbara. Wondering what to do in all this sunshine tomorrow? Lucky for you Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County has not one but three ideas on how to spend the day:

1. Stop-by Habitat's Volunteer Open House at our four new Habitat homes at 618 San Pascual Street. If you volunteered at the site or just want to see what Habitat is up to in the community, we invite you to come view the completed homes from 11am to 3pm. We can also promise free coffee courtesy of Starbucks!
2. Habitat will also have a booth at the Santa Barbara Mission Conference held at First Presbyterian Church on State and Constance. We're looking forward to hearing from keynote speaker Steve Hayner and are thrilled to once again be involved in this event.
3. Lastly, the ReStore will be open tomorrow from 9am to 5pm. The amount of new merchandise donated this past week is pretty amazing! And the second warehouse has had a makeover of sorts so come support Habitat, do some shopping, and check out the inventory!

So there you have it. We hope to see you tomorrow. Enjoy the sunshine!

Haiti One Year Later

Port-au-Prince 1 year later.*

Our hearts are heavy today as we remember the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti one year ago today. 3.7 million people were affected by the earthquake and more than 1.5 million people were left homeless. It is hard to fathom that level of destruction but we hope our prayers, financial support, and attention can provide some level of comfort to the millions affected.

 

Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County has donated over $18,000 to support the relief efforts in Haiti. Every year we designate a portion of our "tithe" to an international Habitat that needs support. After the earthquake in Haiti we felt our tithe could truly make a difference in that country, and we're proud to say it has. In the past year, Habitat for Humanity International has accomplished the following in Haiti: 

• Provided 21,000 emergency shelter kits to help Haitians clean up debris, complete basic repairs and create emergency shelter.  
• Given 1,000 families received transitional shelters by December 2010, with a total of 2,000 scheduled by the end of January 2011.
• Employed 200 Haitians to build shelters. In a nation with an unemployment rate of 60%, job opportunities are a crucial part of rebuilding.
• Trained for 500 Haitians in earthquake-resistant construction techniques. 

For a complete update on the recovery efforts visit: Haiti Earthquake: One Year Later.  If you would like to make a donation to the continued relief efforts in Haiti,  please include "Haiti" in the special designation field and we will honor your request.

A Habitat shelter*

 *Photos courtesy of Habitat for Humanity International.

Did You Know?

The stats are in! In 2010 Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County had:

• 219 ReStore Volunteers
• 609 construction volunteers at the San Pascual site.
• 7 corporate groups participate in Corporate Work Days
• 14 local churches sent groups from their congregations
• 102 event volunteers 
• 4 organizations volunteered time 

Now do the math. That's a lot of volunteers! Thank you again to everyone who helped make 2010 such a successful year. We've put together a slideshow of some of the volunteers from the year. Be sure to check it out: here.

If you didn't get a chance to volunteers in 2010, make it a resolution for 2011 (it's not too late!) and sign-up here.

Volunteer Spotlight on Robby Guevara

Robby Guevara recently passed a milestone with Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County and we were excited to celebrate with him. Robby has volunteered over 200 hours with Habitat and celebrated his milestone in true Habitat fashion - by volunteering a full afternoon in the ReStore.

Word spread that we would be celebrating Robby and sending him off (a new job means he will not be able to volunteer with us weekly) and other volunteers joined and even provided a homemade cake. Thanks, Michelle!

Robby's positivity and friendliness will be missed in the ReStore. Customers love his assistance and we love his dedication to the Habitat mission. He has been a tremendous asset to the ReStore team. We hate saying goodbye to such a wonderful volunteer and a true friend. Thankfully Robby isn't moving away and promises to volunteer when his work schedule allows.

Robby receiving his name tag pin signifying 200 volunteer hours

Staff and fellow volunteers posing with Robby.

The famous "ReStore Robby" cake

2010: A Year to Celebrate for Habitat

2010 was a tremendous year for Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County and our new homeowners. We began the year with a plot of land on the lower west side of Santa Barbara, in June began the above ground construction, and in December we handed our partner families keys to their new homes! It was a whirlwind of a year and on top of that we closed escrow on a piece of land which will be the future site of 12 new homes. None of this would have been possible without the dedication of our volunteers, sponsors, donors, partner families, and board members.  

Below is a year in photos - this is by no means all of the Habitat happenings of 2010.

January: We began the year with an empty lot and a huge slope!

February: the Partner Families and mentors met for their first work day at the site.

March: We invited the community to celebrate the start of construction.

April: The massive retaining wall was built.

May: we celebrated spring with a sale at our ReStore!

June: Above ground construction began on the four homes!

July: Thrivent Builds volunteers helped with the framing.

August: SB Community Church, one of our Apostle Build churches, sent a group of volunteers.

September: We welcomed people of all faiths during an Interfaith Build Day.

October: Representative Lois Capps met the partner families during the Tour of Green Homes fundraiser.

November: All Saints-By-The-Sea Church sent a work crew.

December: The homes were complete and the ribbon was cut!

Mark your calendars for Habitat's Open House

Please join Habitat for Humanity for a Thank-You Open House to celebrate completion of the homes at 618 San Pascual Street Saturday, January 15th 11:00 a.m - 3:00 p.m These homes were built thanks to your support. Please join us in celebrating the completion of these homes and the hope and security they will provide. No need to RSVP. Map to the location can be found here.

With your help the Habitat homes are built!