Page 5 - Bella - June 2015

High School.
When they were first married and moved to El Dorado, Pat worked at the old El Dorado Foundry and Sue Ellen worked at First Financial Bank in
the Agriculture Department (loans and payments). She had volunteered to help when Habitat was building a home and when they needed help with a fundraiser, she helped sell 3,000 geraniums.
“I was going to take a leave of absence from the bank when
I had John.” When he was two weeks old, she was offered the job with Habitat and since then, the whole family has helped build homes for the less fortunate in this area. “We’ve lived here ever since,” she said.
When she first started at Habitat, Sue Ellen laughed as she recalled that she received the records in a big, black trash bag.
Legalities concerning building homes for Habitat “have changed so much” since Sue Ellen first started the job as executive director of Habitat. “At first – everything was just basic, but now everything
has to receive approval and Habitat must complete
a yearly audit. There is lots more
paperwork,” she said.
“We feel
like we are
making a difference,”
Sue Ellen said, explaining that
most families want to be homeowners
to “provide a nice place to raise their kids.
If their children don’t have a decent place to sleep, things just go downhill. So many people just need a chance and that’s what Habitat for Humanity provides – a hand up – not a hand-out,” she said.
“We cannot expect a child, who is living in a house with no electricity, no running water, no gas, in an unsafe neighborhood, to excel in school if they are worried about their home. Lots of these families are working, they just can’t make ends meet. Some of these parents are paying $600 a month for rent
in homes that are not decent — their payments will go down to $250 a month when they move
into their new Habitat home and they will have a clean, safe home with running water and electricity,” she said.
“We work to improve the neighborhoods and our homeowners work to improve the community by taking care
recent check stubs, W2 forms and other papers that verify jobs and a steady income – so homeowners will be able to pay the home mortgage. Sue Ellen explained that potential homeowners apply to a committee that considers all
like banks, Sue Ellen said, “We have to show that homeowners have enough money to pay a mortgage and no more than 35 percent of their income can be used to provide housing. Habitat house payments are $250 a month, which includes
(four months) to complete
a Habitat house – of course, depending on the weather,” she said. “One year it rained and rained and so it took longer” to complete that house.
“We’ve had amazing people volunteering over the years.
El Dorado is an amazing community of people who want to make this community a better place to live. Homes for families to live in helps the schools, the hospital, the police force. We have a housing crisis here in El Dorado.
“We see families in houses with vermin and no insulation and when they move into a new Habitat home – suddenly their allergies disappear, kids have their own rooms to do their homework. Habitat homes are now built with set-ups for cable and the internet,” Sue Ellen said.
“Habitat homes make a
real difference in the lives of children with allergies and asthma issues — the homes have central heat and air conditioning with filters. Children feel safe in their new, clean homes and they have pride in their homes. We’ve had some teenagers tell us that since they have moved into their
new Habitat homes, they can now bring friends home – the families have pride of home ownership,” she said.
One student who had gone
to school with the Dillard’s daughter, Samantha, recently graduated from nursing school. She grew up in a Habitat
home and along with the El Dorado Promise, a $50 million scholarship gift from Murphy Oil Corp. to graduates of El Dorado High School, she was
of their homes and yards and paying property taxes,” Sue Ellen said. “All children who have grown up in a Habitat home talk about how they want to give back to the community.”
To qualify for a Habitat
home, potential homeowners must not be able to go to any lending organization to qualify for any traditional home loan “because they have no credit or shaky credit,” she said. Income guidelines are based on the number of people in the family.
Potential homeowners must be willing to partner with Habitat and volunteers and work “500 hours of sweat equity” to help build other Habitat homes. “They can work on previous homes or help in the office or at the warehouse,” Sue Ellen said. They also must have verifiable income – with
the applicants, their paperwork for employment, a list of
their debts and what they are currently spending on housing.
“The Family Selection Committee then picks one or two applicants from the group of those who have applied
and usually a house will also be built for the second family selected ‘somewhere down the road’,” she said. “Sometimes there are 100 applications submitted for the next Habitat house and sometimes only a few. The first step to receiving a Habitat home is to fill out
an application,” she said. The day to fill out and submit applications is usually in June and those days are held on a Sunday afternoon at a local church.
Explaining that Habitat is bound by all legal lending laws
taxes and insurance, and they are offered home loans at 0 percent interest.”
Since Habitat began building in El Dorado, 10 families have paid off their mortgages – all early – Sue Ellen said, adding that mortgage payments are used to build more homes.
“We like to have between 15 and 18 volunteers on any given Saturday and we have had great response from local churches, individuals and groups,” she said. “We will have about 250 people volunteer on any given home throughout the process and it takes about 16 weeks
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June 2015 – BELLA – 5
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