Anybody Can Serve

“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college
degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Tomorrow we mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day in which we remember Dr. King's dream of equality for all. The MLK Day of Service is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service – a “day on, not a day off.” The King Day of Service is a way to transform his life and teachings into community service that helps solve social problems. 

There are many ways you can put Dr. King's ideas into practice. Have you volunteered with Habitat for Humanity? Here in Santa Barbara there are many opportunities to serve. Habitat relies upon volunteers to help run our ReStore. The ReStore is open Tuesdays through Fridays - that's a lot of volunteer hours that we need to fill! Additionally, we complete A Brush with Kindness home repairs regularly. We need volunteers to donate one of their Saturday's to help low-income homeowners make necessary repairs to their home. And lastly, later this year Habitat will begin construction on 12 new low-income homes on Canon Perdido Street. We rely on our corp of volunteers to compete construction on these homes. This makes the process both affordable to build and affordable to the future homeowners. 

We'd love for you to join Habitat for Humanity's mission of ending substandard housing in our community. Sign up to volunteer online, or attend one of our monthly volunteer orientations to learn more about our work in Santa Barbara.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ”
—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

12 Low-Income Homes In Santa Barbara

Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County was featured on local TV station KCOY last night in advance of the January 12th Planning Commission hearing for the 12 new low-income homes planned for Canon Perdido Street.

In case you missed it, please view the video here and read the accompanying article below.

'Habitat' Planning 12 Low-Income Homes In Santa Barbara

SANTA BARBARA – Habitat For Humanity is planning its third and largest housing plan to date, which will create new affordable homes for 12 low-income families.

The nearly half acre of land on the eastside of Santa Barbara is the proposed spot for a dozen new townhomes.

The homes will be three stories high and contractors built story poles to let nearby residents know how tall it is compared to neighboring buildings. It's a step Habitat For Humanity is taking to make home ownership for low-income families possible.

"We see many families pay over 50 percent of their income on rent," said Joyce McCullough, Habitat For Humanity Executive Director. "We had one of our families living in a small two bedroom apartment with another family because they couldn't afford the high cost of rent in Santa Barbara."

The housing project is still in the approval process with the City of Santa Barbara. It will go to the Planning Commission on Thursday for the approval to move forward. If all goes as planned, they will break ground at the end of the year.

"It's going to be sort of a little village here and I think it will be a really pleasant place four our families to live," said McCullough.

There is a small open space on the property and Habitat For Humanity will spruce up the yard and add a play area for the kids who will live there.

The low-income housing application process will start in April. A family of four with an annual income of $45,000 to $55,000 a year can qualify. There are already 150 families interested in applying for the new units.

The land for the project cost $975,000. Habitat For Humanity was able to secure Redevelopment Agency Funds for the purchase in 2010.

For more information, click here: http://www.sbhabitat.org/index.php

Habitat for Humanity’s recovery program in Haiti

Habitat for Humanity International put out this press release today on the progress being made in Haiti. We were encouraged to hear that 40,000 families so far have benefited from Habitat's work since the devastating earthquake two years ago. There remains much that needs to be done and Habitat is committed to helping thousands more families. Please read the full press release below.

Two years after the Haiti earthquake, Habitat for Humanity's recovery program has benefited more than 40,000 families through emergency, transitional and permanent housing solutions

Habitat's five-year recovery program on target to serve 50,000 families

ATLANTA (Jan. 6, 2012) - Two years after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, Habitat for Humanity's five-year disaster recovery program has helped more than 40,000 families or approximately 200,000 individuals in Port-au-Prince, Léogâne and Cabaret.

As part of its effort to provide 50,000 families with pathways to permanent housing, Habitat has distributed to-date more than 24,500 emergency shelter kits with partner organizations, constructed more than 4,000 transitional or upgradeable shelters, conducted 12,000 house damage assessments, repaired or rehabbed more than 350 houses, and constructed 150 permanent core houses as part of its permanent housing community in Léogâne.
"Habitat has a long-term view of its work in Haiti. We are committed to remaining in the country for years to come and reaching more families in desperate need of simple and decent permanent shelter," said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. "While our earthquake recovery program has focused largely on temporary housing solutions, our primary focus over the next three years will shift to partnering with Haitian families to provide permanent housing."

The Léogâne development has the potential to house up to 500 families, or approximately 2,500 individuals. Volunteers constructed 100 core homes in one week as part of Habitat's 28th annual Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. An additional 50 Habitat homes were built in partnership with Haven, an Irish non-profit. Habitat will construct another 100 houses in 2012 with more to be constructed, pending additional funding.

"We are extremely grateful for the support Habitat has received from donors, supporters and volunteers, without whom our recovery efforts in Haiti would not be possible," said Mark Andrews, vice president of Haiti recovery for Habitat for Humanity International. "Our hope is to be able to help even more families through the continued generosity of people who share our commitment to Haiti."

Habitat is also helping to build long-term economic growth and sustainability by training and hiring Haitians through Habitat Haiti's main office and Habitat Resource Centers. Approximately 700 local job opportunities have been created by Habitat's recovery program and nearly 80 percent of its full-time central staff is Haitian. In addition, Habitat has trained approximately 4,450 individuals in construction techniques, financial literacy, damage assessments, disaster risk reduction and business development.

Additionally, since land tenure remains the biggest roadblock to reconstruction, Habitat is leading a coalition supporting land tenure reform. Land ownership was nebulous before the earthquake, and now it is even more of a challenge. Building permanent homes on land that is not properly deeded is not an option for Habitat.

To address this challenge, Habitat has created and fostered the Haiti Property Law Working Group, a diverse coalition of Haitian government officials, lawyers, academics and business leaders, along with representatives of the World Bank, USAID, the Inter-American Development Bank, the government of France, the Organization of American States, Architecture for Humanity, the Clinton Global Initiative, foundations, development partners and other nongovernmental organizations engaged in reconstruction and development. The goal of the Haiti Property Law Working Group is to support the government of Haiti in the recovery effort through the appropriate development of property for job creation, wealth creation, housing and other purposes by defining each step of the current processes applicable to land transactions and recommending improvements to be incorporated in future policies.
The earthquake damaged nearly 190,000 houses in Haiti, of which 105,000 were completely destroyed. Of the more than 2 million affected survivors, 550,000 are still displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration.

About Habitat for Humanity Haiti
Habitat for Humanity has been at work in Haiti for 27 years and has provided housing solutions through a variety of initiatives including new home construction, progressive building, home repairs and improvements. Habitat also builds capacity in construction skills, disaster risk reduction and financial literacy, and works in coordination with community and government agencies. For more information, visit Habitat.org/Haiti.

About Habitat for Humanity International
Habitat for Humanity International is a global nonprofit Christian housing organization that seeks to put God's love into action by bringing people together to build homes, communities and hope. Since 1976, Habitat has served more than 500,000 families by welcoming people of all races, religions and nationalities to construct, rehabilitate or preserve homes; by advocating for fair and just housing policies; and by providing training and access to resources to help families improve their shelter conditions. For more information, to donate or to volunteer, please visit www.habitat.org, or follow us at www.facebook.com/habitat or at www.twitter.com/habitat_org or join Habitat's blog community at www.habitat.org/blog.

200 volunteer hour milestones

2012 is already off to a great start at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore! Yesterday two of our regular Thursday volunteers, Bob and Suzi, reached their 200 volunteer hour milestones.  They're commitment to Habitat for Humanity over the past year has been wonderful and we rely on their attention to detail and wonderful organizational skills!

Bob and Suzi took a break from restocking the ReStore shelves to pose with Joel, Ruairi, Jeff and Dennis. Join us in thanking them for their commitment to Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County!

Volunteer thank-yous

In early December Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County celebrated our wonderful ReStore volunteers with a Saturday BBQ lunch and ReStore sale. It was a beautiful day and a great way to kick-off the holiday season. Enjoy some belated pictures from the day:

We also celebrated Mathias' 60+ hours that he volunteered in the ReStore.

The Starbucks crew who helped with the BBQ lunch, and provided coffee!

Westmont College volunteers looking very festive in their Santa hats.