| From the President |
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Dear Friends, I wish each of you could be with us to share in the celebration of this glorious mission and join with us when we dedicate our Habitat homes. The dedication ceremonies are spirit-filled and joyful—smiles and tears abound as our Habitat homebuyers’ dream of home ownership is made real for the first time. This summer at a ceremony in Woodbury, celebrating the amazing work of our Centex and Andersen Blitz Build partners who built four townhomes in less than four weeks, one of our homebuyers took my hand and was overcome with emotion as he told me that Habitat “made a miracle” in his family’s life—he simply could not believe that this beautiful new home was now going to be his. Indeed it did seem like a miracle to me when an empty concrete slab was transformed into four homes built by crews of “expert” volunteers in a matter of days. Making miracles happen does seem an apt description for what we do at Habitat. The seed for this miracle begins with you and your faithful, generous and loving commitment to this mission. The seed for this miracle is also sown with land—all homes need a place to be and Habitat needs partners who can help us find the land to build Habitat homes. If we want to grow our ability to make miracles happen we must first find land. Sometimes we find this land by working on the re-development of a site in a neighborhood in Minneapolis or St. Paul with partners building rental housing or selling homes to market-rate buyers. These re-development projects are complex and can take five or six years to become a reality. We also can build homes in brand new developments, like Bailey’s Arbor in Woodbury, where we depend on a partner such as Centex Homes to include our Habitat homes in a large new development. And sometimes we can build homes when we can find small sites in cities, first ring suburbs or fast growing outer ring suburbs. Wherever we build in the future, we know with certainty that land is a scarce and valuable resource and we compete with market-rate buyers to acquire the land. We need your help to make miracles happen—call Habitat if you have land to donate or sell to us at a discount. Call Habitat if you have an idea for partnership with a new housing development that is being built in your community. And call Habitat if you would like to welcome Habitat homes in your community so that you too can make miracles happen in your neighborhood! Thank you for being a miracle worker and helping Habitat create home ownership opportunities for Habitat families throughout the Twin Cities. Gratefully, Susan Haigh |
