New Habitat for Humanity home comes to North 12th

FAIRFIELD — A prefabricated house rolled into Fairfield May 26 and was placed on its foundation on North 12th Street.

The home was purchased by Greater Fairfield Area Habitat for Humanity. The organization was not able to use volunteers to build a home this year because of the pandemic, but its board did not want to let a year go by without helping those in need, so it purchased a ready-made home from Homes for Iowa.

Homes for Iowa collaborates with Iowa Prison Industries to build moderately priced homes, and the organization plans to build 875 of them in the next decade.

Once the finishing touches are installed in the coming weeks such as the flooring, porches, decks and landscaping, the home will be occupied by David Haynes and Rayna Hall and their two children. Habitat Project Manager Kathy Brown said the couple now reside in a small apartment, and when they toured their new house last week, their 2-year-old son was thrilled to learn he had a bedroom to himself.

Brown said his parents tried to calm him down as he ran through the house, excited to have so much open space.

Brown said Habitat has relied on inmates for years to help build its home, but this was the first time prisoners built an entire house for the group. She said Habitat has used Iowa Prison Industries in Fort Madison to build its cabinets.

When the group learned last year it could not rely on volunteers to build the Habitat house, Brown called her contact at the Fort Madison prison to see if the inmates could make more than the cabinets. That’s how she learned about Homes for Iowa, which employs inmates at the Newton Correctional Facility to make prefabricated homes.

Brown said she and another board member visited Newton to see how these homes are manufactured.

“I was anxious to see what went into the walls, the electrical and especially the insulation,” Brown said. “Our current homes are super insulated so our utility bills are low, and that ensures families will be able to afford them.”

Brown said she came away impressed with the quality of the prefabricated homes.

“A lot of the products they used are exactly what we use and some are better,” she said. “Everybody who has seen the home has been blown away by how good it looks.”

Brown said that, though Habitat is purchasing the home from an outside source, it’s actually not costing the organization any more than to have it built by volunteers, about $90,000. She said this is possible because the prisoners are paid 50 cents an hour, so the labor costs are barely above that of volunteers who donate their labor.

“Several people have said we should do one of these [prefabricated] homes every year,” Brown said.

However, Brown said there is no plan to switch to buying prefabricated homes, and that beginning this fall, Habitat will return to having volunteers build its home like they’ve always done. Habitat partners with Fairfield High School, which has a construction class that helps build the Habitat home.

“We want to honor our partnership with FHS because we’re really happy with it. Habitat gets a quality home and the students learn a trade,” Brown said.

Brown said Habitat plans to use volunteers to finish the last few projects that remain on this house. Libertyville Savings Bank, AERON Lifestyle Technology and Cambridge Investment Research are all interested in having their employees help finish the house.

“It’s amazing we have that level of support from our corporate partners,” Brown said.

Brown added that Nate Weaton of Creative Edge Master Shop donated all the flooring for the house.

“That’s a big-ticket item,” Brown said.

Brown said this is the second Habitat home built on North 12th Street, and the group plans to build five more on the street. In fact, the foundation for the next one will be dug this summer so the Fairfield students can start building the home in the fall. Habitat has another cluster of six homes on North Ninth Street.

Habitat is taking applications for the new home that will be finished next year. Interested individuals can learn more at fairfieldhabitat.org.