Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Habitat for Humanity to Rehab GJ Home

VOLUNTEER EFFORT EXPANDS BEYOND JEFFERSON

Habitat for Humanity of Boone and Greene Counties will rehabilitate a home in Grand Junction as part of its extended outreach in Greene County.

Erich Kretzinger, executive director, Habitat for Humanity of Boone and Greene Counties, met with the Grand Junction City Council on February 12 to discuss repairing a home in Grand Junction.

“For the past 15 years we’ve building and repairing homes in Jefferson, but now we are looking to extend out to the other communities of Greene County,” said Kretzinger, who is based in Boone. “We always work with owner-occupied homes, and there is some sweat equity involved on the part of the homeowner. The homeowner pays the cost of the materials.”

Kretzinger said “we have a family ready to go in Grand Junction. Their insurance was cancelled last fall.” Repairing the home will make it insurable, which was not the case for the home destroyed by fire in the north part of Jefferson last fall that killed 18-year-old Cody Garreans-Walsh.

Kretzinger said Habitat of Humanity considers both younger families and the elderly in working to rehabilitate homes. “Family and friends can fill in to handle the ‘sweat equity’ share for the elderly home owners. And the families do not have to be debt-free,” he pointed out.

The outreach to towns around the county builds on a program formerly known as Brush with Kindness, but has since been changed to Helping Hands, said Kretzinger.

Habitat for Humanity relies on volunteer labor and support. Kretzinger said a call for volunteers will go out soon channeled through the local contacts for Habitat for Humanity.





1 comment:

  1. Nice to see that HfH is considering homes outside of Jefferson. Good luck to all of the participants.

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