Darius had never celebrated Christmas in the same house twice before. His family had moved, year after year, from one cramped space to another, and Darius had never even had a room of his own. Every year, Darius had to make new friends, go to a new school, and ride a new bus. Darius could only dream of the stable life that all children deserve.
Today, Darius shares a bedroom with his older brother, by choice, and he’s getting ready for the day when he can finally move into the bedroom that’s already waiting for him down the hall. Today, Darius knows that his parents own this home, and that they will paint his bedroom purple if he asks them to. Darius feels safe now. He knows his family can stay in this house until he goes off to college or becomes a fireman.
This is not a fairy tale. Darius is just one of 38 truly deserving children whose lives have been transformed by the local efforts of Housatonic Habitat for Humanity. Darius smiles now, and he now looks forward to “Everything!” because Housatonic Habitat for Humanity helped his family with one very basic thing – having a decent place to live.
And Darius is not alone. Over the years, Housatonic Habitat for Humanity has helped 80 people achieve their dreams by helping them build and finance their own homes when otherwise they might never be able to. Our goal is and always has been stabilization, not quick fixes. Housatonic Habitat builds more than homes. We build lives. We build families, neighborhoods, and communities. We build solid bases of committed volunteers, and we strengthen the towns we work with. We build community.
And when economic conditions make the lives of deserving families all the more difficult, we at Housatonic Habitat for Humanity feel compelled to do even more to keep their lives intact. Our model is simple and effective. We start by carefully screening truly deserving families, choosing only those with strong work ethics, limited incomes, no criminal records, and a willingness to join us for at least 400 hours in building their homes.
Then we build. The homes we create are modest by Fairfield county standards -- three bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths -- and lack many of the routine amenities that most of us take for granted. We acquire land or homes in need of repair in areas on the upswing, and we use teams of dedicated volunteers to improve those properties.
But our impact goes far beyond the homes we actually lay hands on. Our projects almost inevitably reinvigorate the neighborhoods we work in. Often, as we begin transforming what is typically the most run down house on the block, neighbors will just start showing up to work with us as we put up walls and lay floors. Just as often, nearby homeowners start sprucing up their own properties, and suddenly the neighborhood improvement that Housatonic Habitat for Humanity aims for begins taking on a life of its own. By then, often and not least, many local companies begin donating manpower, appliances, and money, laying a solid and lasting foundation for the resurrection of a street, a block, a neighborhood.
The families we’ve helped are no longer part of state or federal rental subsidy programs. They contribute to the tax base, build personal equity, and add their share to our local economies. And nearly all Housatonic Habitat homeowners will stay in their homes for thirty years or more, putting an end to what might otherwise be a series of unending downward spirals.
Today, in Danbury alone, there are 600 people on the waiting list for affordable apartments, and another 450 waiting for Section 8 rental assistance. That means that over 1,000 families are struggling to survive in typically substandard housing right alongside us, right here in one of the most affluent states in the nation. These are our neighbors, and, like Darius’ family, they are hardworking, decent people who just want their own front porch. We offer them a hand up, not a handout. We build floors so they can build lives, and together we can all build better communities.
The Habitat for Humanity model moves people out of the assistance cycle and into economic and family stability. Please give generously and help us to do more. With your generous support, we can acquire more properties, build more homes, stabilize more families, revitalize more neighborhoods, and together build a more sustainable community, a community that we can all be proud to be part of. Together we can give these deserving, hardworking families a chance they will get nowhere else. Please help us keep pulling good people off long waiting lists.
Please help us give another seven year old boy a purple bedroom. We can only do it with your help.
Your gift means: “Everything!”
Mary Aly
Executive Director
