WASHINGTON — The Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C is in urgent need of help as shelter in place orders impact families financially and delay the construction of homes.
D.C. Habitat President and CEO Susanne Slater said they are doing all they can to finish 14 homes in Southeast, which would be the organization’s 200th home.
Because of social distancing, D.C. Habitat has had to pause volunteer operations on construction sites.
“Habitat has been affected by the pandemic quite a bit,” Slater said. “It's meant that we have much, much more urgency in providing what we do because housing is a critical need during this pandemic. Overcrowded housing is definitely related to people being more susceptible to contracting the disease.”
As for the 14 homes that Slater said are 90 percent complete, she said they are a few weeks behind but luckily the volunteers got a lot done before they had to temporarily halt volunteer operations.
“I would say we’re a few weeks behind that we're struggling really hard,” Slater said. “We definitely need help, there's no two ways about it, and people can donate through dchabitat.org to our emergency fund and accelerate how fast we can finish these 14 homes because we're now at the stage where we do have to pay the plumbers, electricians and so forth.”
She said in an effort to get families into the homes, they have digitized information sessions and everything they would typically do with families preparing to move it.
Slater said because of the health crisis we are in, there is a heightened need for homes that people can safely shelter in place in.
"And if they do shelter in place in inadequate housing, they're much more vulnerable to COVID-19 because of overcrowding and deplorable conditions,” Slater said.
The Habitat DC website said the families Habitat works with are going to be hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftershocks. The relief fund they have created aims to help those who are vulnerable.
“Because the economy is in such terrible shape all of that economic pressure on our families is even more intense,” Slater said. “So, it's even more important that they have a stable affordable place to live.”
As for the nearly 200 families currently living in Habitat homes, she said she expects many of them to also feel financial pain associated with the pandemic.
“Many people are affected by job loss, tremendous financial setbacks and so forth, so we're very big on helping existing homeowners, avoid foreclosure and keep their homes,” Slater said.
Slater said they have set up an emergency fund to assist their partners and future homeowners, and she said there is an urgent need for donations to also ensure delays in construction will not continue in the future.
She said there have already been some delays on the banking side, as they become overwhelmed with loan programs. She said that would be one of the hurdles they need to cross before starting their next big project in Southeast D.C.
“For the next project, the eight houses in Skyland, if the mayor's orders continue, we won't be able to use volunteers on that project, and we have all the permits, we're all ready to roll we're ready to break ground,” Slater said. She said if that happens they will be behind in operations. “We will join the ranks of other habitat affiliates that will not be able to move as quickly as we would like with the volunteers.”
Although she said they wouldn't want to do it without volunteers, they would keep moving as fast as the could complete the houses.