Macomb Daily, MI
June 23 2005

Habitat for Humanity brings Jimmy Carter to Michigan to build

Former president helps with projects in Benton Harbor and the Detroit
area

By Gina Joseph
Macomb Daily Staff Writer

Macomb Daily photo by David Dalton
Former President Jimmy Carter shares a laugh with Gov. Jennifer
Granholm at a news conference in Detroit on Wednesday to promote
Habitat for Humanity International.
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The sweet sound of gospel hymns can be heard on Sundays at St.
Elizabeth Holiness Church of God and there’s the odd squeal of car
tires, but mostly the neighborhood along Magnolia Street in Detroit
is quiet. Dead quiet.
“This is beautiful,” said Elizabeth Pollard, referring to the noise
and commotion created by Habitat for Humanity International’s Jimmy
Carter Work Project 2005. The weeklong building blitz is held
annually in the United States and other parts of the world. Detroit
and Benton Harbor were chosen as host cities this year. “I hope this
means I’m going to have some good neighbors moving in.”

Pollard is the pastor at St. Elizabeth and has lived in its upstairs
suite since 1967. She’s seen her neighborhood at its best, and its
worst. Watching from a chair in front of her home wearing a sundress
and her silver hair done up in corn rows, she was seeing her
neighborhood at its best again, alive with new home construction and
people.

“Have you seen Jimmy Carter?” she asked, while looking up and down
the street. “He is supposed to be here, somewhere.”

The former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jimmy
Carter, 80, and his wife, Rosalyn, arrived in Michigan on Saturday to
kick off the event. Their presence in the state created a wave of
thundering hammers and zipping saws that has played for four days —
not only in Pollard’s neighborhood but also, all across Michigan.

Wednesday, for a brief moment, the noise stopped.

Homeowners

“There’s not much difference between a homeowner and a governor,”
said Carter, who arrived in Pollard’s neighborhood ready to go to
work, wearing blue jeans supported by a leather belt with a silver
horseshoe belt buckle with the initials J.C. in its middle, white
running shoes and Habitat cap. “We all want a better life for our
children and a better prospect for the future.”

Carter said the answer to providing affordable housing in Michigan,
and for that matter throughout the world, is not to abandon a
community, but where possible to ‘rebuild’ a community.

A report by Habitat for Humanity Michigan stated that approximately
500,000 households earn less than 50 percent of their county’s median
income, making decent, affordable housing hard to find. Of these
households, almost 75 percent, or nearly 375,000 families, use more
than half their income for housing, leaving little money for food,
clothing, healthcare, transportation and other necessities.”

Carter told the crowd of volunteers, sponsors, activists and
journalists gathered in Detroit that Habitat for Humanity can’t build
enough homes to solve the building crisis in the world but it can
inspire others to help with the solution.

Carter inspired Michigan’s Governor Jennifer Granholm.

She was very much a part of the building project, visiting homes and
helping with the construction in Benton Harbor. Sitting next to
Carter wearing a Detroit Pistons T-shirt she talked about the
importance of the sponsors such as Whirlpool Corp., Masco Corp., Dow
Chemical Company, Lowe’s, Great Lakes Capital Fund and the Michigan
State Housing, that support such building projects. Then she smiled
and added that 650 state employees took this entire week off to help
build homes. Never before, in the history of Habitat for Humanity has
every member of a state’s congressional delegation pledged to take
part in the building effort.

Proud of this fact was U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

“I love Habitat for Humanity,” Stabenow said. “I’ve been involved
with it for 20 years. I’m pretty good at swinging a hammer. I’ve also
learned how to put up siding and drywall. Just don’t put me on a
roof. I’m not great with heights.”

As a result of the statewide support for the Jimmy Carter Work
Project 2005, Michigan will have 230 new homes.

“We have never seen a state or country come together as complete as
this state has this past week,” Carter said. “So there’s something
special about Michigan.”

With that said Carter went back to work.

He and Rosalyn worked on a home along with several of their children.
Of the grand total, to be finished by Friday, 31 were built in
Pollard’s neighborhood and 24 in Benton Harbor.

Today, the former president and his wife are off to Ontario, where
they will work alongside Canadians on one of three duplexes being
built by the Windsor chapter of Habitat for Humanity. The new homes
are part of a quaint little community that has sprung up along Bruce
Street.

“We built those last year,” said Tammy Moore, Habitat for Humanity
volunteer and board of directors member, while pointing to a row of
foursquare-style homes with beige siding across the street from the
Habitat project.

“Personally, I was too young to know what Carter was like as
president but his devotion and drive for the cause of Habitat fuels
the energy for my wanting to volunteer, as well as local and
international commitments. This build here is a good example. It
brings together Canada and the United States as a North American
community.”

The remaining homes will be completed by the 60-plus Michigan Habitat
affiliates including Macomb County’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity,
which has three homes in Clinton Township presently under
construction. Among Macomb County’s newest homeowners are: Sophia
Waters, a single mother with two daughters; Jackie Pointer, a single
mother with one son; and Andrea Hodges, also a single mother with one
son.

“My house is awesome,” said Sophia Waters. The best part being it’s
permanent.

“We don’t have to worry about moving here or there. I will grow old
in this house. My kids might go to college, but now they will have a
place to come home to.”

The Oakley Street house was part of a Habitat for Humanity Women
Build that included Waters. She helped with the painting, drywall and
siding, but she is most proud of her work in the kitchen where she
and the other ladies on the Habitat team installed a beautiful
ceramic tile floor.

“I could live in my kitchen alone,” said Waters, a press operator and
hi-lo driver for Manufacture Products in Warren. “It’s awesome.”

Unexpected talent

Andrea Hodges was not part of an “all women build,” but, like all
future Habitat homeowners, helped in its construction.

“I’ve done the painting, I worked on the siding and I helped put in
the windows. I would’ve never known I had that kind of talent,” said
Hodges, a nursing assistant at Martha T. Berry in Mount Clemens. For
the past year Hodges has rented an apartment, but after attending a
Habitat for Humanity information meeting decided it was time to start
paying on her own home instead of one owned by someone else.

“In order to qualify for the program, families must have an income
that’s 50 percent below the median income for the surrounding area,”
said Daniel Wiiki, executive director of the Macomb County chapter of
Habitat. Participants must also contribute 250 hours of “sweat
equity” toward the building of their homes. Once completed, the owner
purchases the home at cost for a considerable savings.

“We sell the home with no interest,” Wiiki said. “The family can be
in the home with payments as little as $400 a month.”

Patriarch visits

Watching everything unfold in Detroit was the Catholics and Supreme
Patriarch of All Armenians, His Holiness Karekin II. Wearing a long
black robe and a Masco baseball cap His Holiness — equivalent in
Armenia to a pope — walked the grounds asking questions. Then, to
the surprise of Zara Tonapetyan of Yerevan, Armenia, who is the
resource development coordinator of Habitat for Humanity Armenia, he
went to work painting a room in one of the houses.

“To see the Patriarch building and actually painting the walls. It’s
lots of enthusiasm,” Tonapetyan said. “Have you ever seen a pope
building a home? It is inspiring.”

Tonapetyan said 40 percent of the population in Armenia is without
heat, water and basic living conditions. That’s why she and the group
stopped in Detroit. They have built 122 homes in different areas of
the country but more is needed.

“We have earthquake in 1988,” Tonapetyan said. “It destroyed two
cities and now these people are homeless. Then there was the
Nagorno-Karabagh conflict. It brought 100,000 refugees to Armenia.”

Karekin visited Michigan to make people, more importantly the Diaspra
population, aware of the situation. Diaspra refers to Armenians who
live outside of the country.

“We are very glad to be here to see how the volunteers with joy are
building houses and how they support cities,” said Karekin. “People
from Armenia and other nations are coming together, building the
houses and friendships, which is a blessing for the families and the
volunteers.”

When all the work is done everyone will rejoice and to celebrate the
fruits of their labor a traditional dedication ceremony will be held.
The keys to the homes will be given to the family. That’s when it all
hits home for Ken Bensen, president for Habitat for Humanity
Michigan, who has been with the ecumenical Christian ministry based
in Americus, Ga., for 20 years.

“The best part for me is knowing that on Friday there will be 238
families who will have decent and affordable housing and in addition
to that, there will be volunteers who will have sore muscles and
bruises but their hearts will be filled with joy,” said Bensen.