Council grant supports Habitat homes
Former President Jimmy Carter lent his carpentry skills at a home in north Minneapolis.
Drakeima Ingram and her four children have moved more times than she cares to count, but she’s looking forward to the next move. After putting in hundreds of hours of sweat equity on her new Habitat for Humanity house in north Minneapolis – alongside dozens of volunteers – she’s hoping to be able to call it home by Christmas.
As she did with her long journey to being chosen by Habitat, she’s leaving the move-in date “in God’s hands.” Ingram applied for a Habitat home three times over more than a decade before being accepted.
Ingram’s future home is one of two Habitat houses being built with funding assistance from the Metropolitan Council. The City of Minneapolis received $110,000 from the Council’s Local Housing Incentive’s Account, part of the Livable Communities program, to build and rehabilitate homes in partnership with Habitat.
“We’re proud to assist Habitat in its significant work to build and maintain affordable housing and to help revitalize neighborhoods,” said Council Chair Peter Bell. “Housing that’s safe and affordable is good for families, but it’s also good for communities.”
Wielding a hammer, meeting the former president
“This is a good experience,” Ingram said. “You get to work on your own house. I’ve also worked on a house across the street. I’m learning a lot. It has been exciting.”
A Met Council grant helped fund the demolition of a blighted property and the construction of this new home in north Minneapolis by Habitat for Humanity.
The first week of October was a little more exciting than most. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter came to the Twin Cities to work on Habitat homes as part of their annual weeklong promotion of the work of Habitat in the U.S. and abroad. Carter, a skilled carpenter, worked on a house across the street from Ingram’s future address.
At a mid-week press conference, Carter said he is grateful for the opportunity to work side by side with the people who will occupy the Habitat homes. He believes Habitat helps volunteers understand that they are peers with the people they are helping. The recipients are “just as intelligent, just as hardworking, and just as ambitious” as any of us, Carter said.
Recipients undergo 'rigorous qualification process'
Habitat applicants undergo a rigorous income evaluation and qualification process, explained Mike Radcliffe, public funding and government relations specialist for Habitat. In a typical year, Twin Cities Habitat will receive 3,000 applications for its homeownership program and are able to accept about 60, he said. In addition to putting in 500 hours of work, recipients pay the full price of the home (without interest). Radcliffe said the delinquency and foreclosure rate on Habitat homes in the Twin Cities is less than one percent.
Drakeima Ingram and her nephew Harold talk with reporters at the site of their future home.
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity marshals thousands of volunteers each year to create and preserve homeownership in neighborhoods across the metro area. In addition to building and renovating homes, the organization helps low-income homeowners repair and maintain their homes, and assists hundreds of families through its mortgage foreclosure prevention program.
During the 27th annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project, October 4-8, Habitat volunteers are building, renovating and repairing a total of 26 homes in Minneapolis and St. Paul.