Local Habitat for Humanity Chapters forging ahead with builds

Even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, local Habitat for Humanity chapters are looking for ways to continue providing affordable housing to families in need.

In southeast Iowa, both the Henry County and the Greater Fairfield Area chapters are working to continue building houses with their partners.

In Henry County, the chapter generally chooses it's yearly partner in the spring and aims to have their partner into the house by December, chapter president and volunteer coordinator Lisa Diener said. Right before the outbreak occurred, the chapter had just moved their most recent partner into their new home in January.

The chapter plans to begin construction on its 28th home some time in June, Diener said. The organization also announced its new partner for the home would be Corinne Sines from Wayland. Sines and her family will contribute 300 hours of sweat equity toward the house, which will be located at the corner of West Second and South Jefferson Street.

Though no official start date has been selected, build days for the home will be every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Diener said the local chapter doesn't foresee any issues or restrictions with building the house, but will be offering hand sanitizer and masks for volunteers. She also said she's not worried about a lack of volunteers due to the outbreak.

'I think most regular volunteers will come regardless,” she said.

Diener explained the chapter works with the local minimum-security prison in Mt. Pleasant to expedite the building process.

'Inmates at the prison build the walls. The walls are built off-site and are ready on day one. For us, our first day is setting,” Diener said.

The chapter president said the only big changes for Henry County has been the cancellation of one board meeting.

'Usually, the new homeowners come to the first meeting to sign paperwork and select home finishes. This time it was held in a different manner and everyone was wearing masks,” Diener said.

For the Greater Fairfield Area chapter, the pandemic hit right in the middle of their building schedule for their 18th house. The chapter in Jefferson County usually begins building in September and finishes the home by June. This follows the local school district's schedule because the organization collaborates with Fairfield High School's Construction Technology program, where students work on the structure on school day afternoons for college credit and experience.

With schools out of session and residents following social distancing guidelines and precautions, Shanaz Kreider, who helps select the home partners for both Fairfield and Henry County, as well as runs the ReStore in Fairfield, said there may be some delays with not only the current house but with beginning construction for the following house as well.

'Usually we finish and like the partner family to move into the house in June. But because we cannot have large groups working on the house, we have one or two people in there at a time. We don't know if we'll be able to finish that house in June,” Kreider said.

The chapter's board will decide in the coming weeks whether it will postpone the building of the next house or to proceed as normal. Currently, the chapter has already postponed recruitment of their next partner family.

'Normally applications go online and we start promotion for choosing our partner homeowner in May, but this year we're taking our time. We want to make sure the previous house is completed before we start working for the next one,” Kreider added.

Kreider said the chapter has faced delays before that have been caused by difficulties fundraising or not having enough volunteers, the pandemic has been something out of the organization's control.

'We want to play it safe. The houses are only 1,100 square-feet, we can't have ten people working in there,” Kreider said. She added that even with the delays, the chapter is hoping to finish their current house by July 1.