Family Story

Remembering President Jimmy Carter

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It is with heavy hearts and deep gratitude that we remember former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away yesterday at the age of 100. Together with his wife, Rosalynn, President Carter led by example, working alongside volunteers to build homes and strengthen communities through the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. His unwavering dedication and advocacy transformed the lives of thousands.

“We join with others around the world in mourning the passing of President Jimmy Carter. The legacy he leaves behind in the Habitat homes he and Mrs. Carter built, and in the progress achieved in the fight for affordable housing and home ownership, will endure for generations to come. May President Carter’s life of service and his spirit of generosity continue to be an example to us all.” —Brett D’Antonio, CEO, Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King & Kittitas Counties

After leaving the White House, the Carters sought out meaningful ways to continue their commitment to social justice and basic human rights. They first volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in Americus, Georgia, near their home of Plains, in March 1984. Later that same year, the Carters joined Habitat volunteers in New York City’s Lower East Side to renovate an abandoned building in partnership with families in need of affordable housing. That trip marked Habitat for Humanity’s first Jimmy Carter Work Project (later renamed the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project). Each year since then until 2019, the Carters volunteered with Habitat to build or improve houses alongside homeowners in communities across the United States and around the world. President Carter also served as a member of the organization’s board of directors from 1984-1987.

“We are deeply saddened by President Carter’s passing, and our prayers are with the rest of the Carter family,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. “President and Mrs. Carter began volunteering with Habitat for Humanity near their home in southwest Georgia, soon bringing worldwide attention to the need for decent and affordable housing. We are grateful for the incredible impact the Carters have had on Habitat and on the families who have benefited from their shining example. The Carters put Habitat for Humanity on the map, and their legacy will live on in every family we serve around the world.”

“I think every human being has within himself or herself a desire to reach out to others and to share some of our blessings with those who are in need,” President Carter has said. “What’s opened up that avenue for me and my wife and hundreds and thousands of others is Habitat for Humanity. It makes it easy for us to reach out and work side by side with the homeowner who’s never had a decent house, perhaps. I haven’t been on a Habitat project that I wasn’t thrilled and inspired, and wept.”

Over the last three decades, the Carter Work Project has touched lives around the world by inspiring more than 108,000 volunteers across the U.S. and in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,447 Habitat homes. Since its founding in 1976, Habitat has served more than 62 million people around the world.  

In 2016, Habitat named President and Mrs. Carter as the inaugural Habitat Humanitarians for their extraordinary dedication to service in alignment with Habitat’s vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Habitat SKKC will commemorate President Carter’s life of service with local observances. Details will be shared shortly. 

Habitat Repairs Are Keeping Colleen Stern at Home

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“They came out in the freezing cold to work on my house,” says Colleen Stern of the Habitat repairs crew. “And most of them were women!” 

Colleen, who is a wood carver herself, was delighted to hear young people outside her door wielding power saws and sledgehammers as they tore down and rebuilt her back steps.  “They made it possible for me to stay in my home,” she says with tearful gratitude in her voice.   

Colleen spent 35 years working as a caregiver for hundreds of clients. “I worked with people in hospice, too,” she adds with pride. During that 35-year career, Colleen raised a son with mental health challenges and created an animal sanctuary in the back yard of her Federal Way manufactured home.  But several spinal injuries she sustained in her work ultimately left her with severe pain and unable to walk without a walker or one of her personally carved walking sticks. She couldn’t return to work, and, in fact, found herself in need of her own caregiver.  

Procore

With very little income and living on her own, the natural deterioration on her 1966 vintage home got serious. After one emergency fall, paramedics had to break down the back door to reach Colleen and it remained broken. The back steps she’d built herself long ago were decaying and weren’t level with the door making them dangerous for her to navigate.  The front porch was rotted through, and her back yard wildlife refuge had become overgrown prohibiting her from tending to her beloved squirrels, raccoons, birds, and rabbits.  She simply could not afford the repairs on her fixed income. 

Shortly after she applied for Habitat help, the repairs crew swooped in “like a pile of carpenter ants,” and “did a fantastic job on all the work.” Colleen has always been a hard worker, and she knew how to make all the repairs, but she was no longer physically able to do them herself.  “So, I cooked for the crew,” she says noting with pride that her sourdough pizzas and vegan enchiladas were a big hit. 

With partial funding from a $10,000 AARP grant, the Habitat crew not only fixed Colleen’s stairs in the front and back of her home, but they also cleared a pathway to her animal sanctuary and added grab bars in the bathroom along with a new higher toilet to accommodate her changing needs. And they added fencing around the stairs for safety. 

Colleen’s was one of two Habitat homes that qualified for help from the AARP grant which focused on home modification and assistance to enhance safety for adult homeowners over age 50, allowing them to age in place.  “So now I can walk right up to the door without tripping over,” says Colleen.  “They fixed the door and gave me a lever style handle so I can open the door without falling off the porch.  I couldn’t do that before. They were just so kind.”

If you know anyone in need of critical home repairs, please reach out to us here: Home Repairs – Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King & Kittitas Counties

KOMO: 40 units of affordable housing in Burien to be available at half the market rate next year

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BURIEN, Wash. — Construction crews were busy Tuesday continuing work to build new, affordable homes in Burien.

The Miller’s Creek Community, located on S. 136th Street along Highway 509, already has water, sewer, power and curbs installed.

The next steps include pouring foundations to create 40 new homes, which Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King and Kittitas Counties (Habitat SKKC) told KOMO News will be priced in the low $300,000 to mid $400,000 range, in a neighborhood where the average home price is more than $800,000.

Click the link to watch the KOMO report.

Habitat SKKC Supports Legacy Communities with Repairs and More

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Residents of Habitat for Humanity SKKC’s Walker Townhomes community were ecstatic to see Habitat volunteers arrive to help them with their repairs work party June 1st.  The community, finished in 1997, has been managed by a self-governing Homeowners Association (HOA) since the first Habitat homeowners moved in 28 years ago. The volunteer work party that arrived to help Walker Townhome residents is part of a pilot program Habitat initiated this year as part of its Community Associations group. 

Led by Community Associations Program Manager, Karissa Johnson, the pilot program is aimed at helping to ensure that Habitat’s Legacy Communities (those that pre-date Habitat’s land trust/ground lease, are in HOA’s and are more than 10 years old) continue to grow, thrive and become lasting permanently affordable housing for generations to come. As Karissa says, “The lessons learned can be readily applied to Habitat’s new builds allowing those communities to benefit from the wisdom of those who came before to make them even more successful from the start.”

Twelve HOA communities, totaling about 190 homes qualify as Legacy communities.  With housing and insurance costs rising dramatically, many HOA’s are short of funding to keep their properties appropriately maintained, a problem that restricts mortgage funding options. Habitat’s pilot program for Legacy communities is designed to support Habitat’s HOA’s in meeting the requirements for lenders to approve standard mortgages when homes are up for resale. In its pilot, Habitat joined forces with the Walker Townhomes HOA to conduct property repairs the HOA didn’t have the resources to cover or complete.

The program’s approach is comprehensive and specific at once. Each community or individual homeowner in the program will receive help tailored to their status.  For example, one property received deck repairs under forgivable liens, one has been plugged into the PSE retrofit grants for lighting, another is getting a free exterior inspection, and a community meeting to better educate everyone about their HOA so they may become more involved with their Board. 

The Legacy Communities program is aligned with Habitat SKKC’s current emphasis on building communities. At the Walker Townhomes work party, brand-new owner, Logan, who had lived there for fewer than 48 hours, came out to meet his neighbors and help. He joined Mr. Nguyen, an original owner, who brought out his photo album with hundreds of pictures of his neighbors working together to build their units with Habitat back in the late 90s. 

Program Manager Karissa has big plans, “I hope, in the long-term, that the program will bring our Legacy properties into Habitat’s permanently affordable housing portfolio, increase our relationship with our owners and the greater community, as well as impact decisions we make in new builds.” Eventually, the Legacy Communities program can enrich the long-standing HOA’s and ensure the HOA’s for new projects are strong, funded, supported and educated to be the best possible community experience for our partner families and every generation to come. 

For More information on Legacy Communities, please contact Karissa Johnson at Karissa.johnson@habitatskc.org.