Pappas tours Habitat for Humanity site, Way Station
MADISON — U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas toured a Mount Washington Valley Habitat for Humanity home construction project in Eidelweiss on Thursday morning, and prior to that, he stopped in at The Way Station in North Conway.
The non-profit resource center at 15 Grove St. in North Conway is run out of the Lutheran Church of the Nativity. It serves the valley’s housing-insecure and homeless population.
At The Way Station, Pappas was told about the need for volunteers to help sort donated items. He also learned that it had received a grant to help plan renovations and about a new program called Circles “designed to disrupt the poverty cycle for participants.”
Circles will team people in poverty with community mentors who can help them. Circles will begin this fall.
Pappas said he will take what he learned back to Washington where he will look for resources to assist with the Way Station’s mission. He said Circles sounds “wonderful.”
In Madison, Anthony Ruddy of Jackson is the volunteer project manager for the Habitat build. He said the home at 56 Huttwil Drive will be a two-story cape with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It will also have a kitchen, living room and dining room. The home under construction sits on a third of an acre of land.
Ruddy said MWV Habitat for Humanity builds one home per year with volunteer labor. Occupants are required to help work on the home. He said donations are always welcome.
Pappas told the Sun that he’s trying to secure funding for a larger project in Albany. Habitat for Humanity’s Albany project involves the construction of about a dozen homes on about 33 acres, not all of which is buildable.
“I’ve requested funding for building out other projects, including one in Albany,” said Pappas in a post-tour interview. “We’re hopeful that as we get work done in Washington that by the end of the year we will be able to secure that grant which will go a long way to community development. It will help folks in this area address the affordable housing crisis.”
Ruddy told the Sun that MWV Habitat for Humanity gets between 20 and 25 volunteers to show up on Thursdays to work on the home.
“It’s just always impressive to see the way the community comes together for something like this,” said Pappas.
Volunteers have various levels of experience. “We have some people who have never built a house,” said Ruddy. “We have some people who have been building houses for Habitat for 15 years.”
Habitat for Humanity has a committee that decides who can live in a home. There are income requirements and the owners have to have decent credit and have manageable debt. The homeowners will have a mortgage which is held by the MWV Habitat for Humanity Chapter.
At the job site Thursday was Reggie Merrill, who will live at the house with wife Charlene, and three grandchildren. “We’ve got our hands full, but we wouldn’t change it for the world,” said Reggie.
At present the family is living in a trailer in Albany that needs a lot of repair. Asked how eager they are to move into their new home Reggie, said that on a scale of one to 10, he’s at a 10.
“My wife’s like a 15,” said Reggie with a laugh and a smile.
Ruddy said the Merrills are putting in the “sweat equity” to secure their home.
The MWV Habitat for Humanity Fundraising Event, Raise the Roof which celebrates building the 27th home in the valley and looking forward to a bright future with the building of the Albany neighborhood. It will be held on Saturday, Sept. 16, at the Grand Summit at Attitash from 5:30-9:30 p.m. There will be a buffet dinner, cash bar, silent and live auctions, wine raffle and a Mini Big Green Egg raffle. Live music will be provided by the Della Valla Bluegrass Trio. Tickets must be purchased by Sept. 2 at mwv-habitat.org/raise-the-roof.
MWV Habitat for Humanity starts its home construction projects in April and tries to wrap up before Christmas. Asked if the severe rainy weather that Madison experienced affected the timeline, Ruddy said it didn’t.
“We were lucky,” said Ruddy. “Every Thursday it didn’t rain. It rained every other day of the week, but it didn’t rain Thursdays.”
Pappas praised the efforts that MWV Habitat for Humanity has made over the past few decades.
“Since this chapter’s inception, they’ve built 28 homes that are putting roofs over families’ heads and making sure they can live affordably,” said Pappas. “We need to see a lot more of this.”