Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity

What started as a simple discussion over morning coffee, turned into a generous gift that will impact numerous Twin Cities families.  This fall, Sue Wick and her husband Glenn Shifflet donated their St. Paul home to Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity (TCHFH).

  Wick bought the small two-bedroom home 22 years ago when she moved to the Twin Cities.  She was a young single professor who had just accepted a job in the biology department at the University of Minnesota.

Wick was married in 1990, and the couple adopted their baby daughter, Cecilia in 1996.  Wick has many fond memories of watching her daughter Cecilia grow up in the home.  "I really loved those baby and toddler years in our house."

The couple also did extensive remodeling, adding wood flooring and new cabinets.  But no amount of remodeling would result in the added space the family needed, so they finally moved in May 2006.

The couple debated for a few months about what to do with the house.  Then one morning, they had one of those "aha" moments.

"My husband and I both donate money to various charitable organizations, many of which operate overseas in very poor countries.  We thought that donating the house would be a way to help people locally," said Wick.

The couple selected Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity because of their previous volunteer experience.  "We found it to be a very worthwhile organization," she said.

They weren't sure whether or not the organization even took property donations, so they made a call.  Mike Nelson, Land Acquisition Manager for TCHFH, visited the home with Wick.

"We were very interested in the property.  It was in a family-friendly St. Paul neighborhood, close to bus lines, schools, churches, grocery stores and other retail," said Nelson.

"We want to make sure that the homes we build or rehab will last a lifetime for our families.  In its current state, we could not guarantee the durability of the house for the duration of a 30 year mortgage.  We explored the option of rehabbing the home, but determined that it would be more cost-effective to tear it down and start fresh," said Alan Raymond, senior vice president of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.

Nelson suggested to the couple that if they were still interested in the donation, that the house would have to be deconstructed, but that as much material as possible would be saved and reused.  While it was difficult to imagine the home taken down, the couple was committed to following through with the donation, and they scheduled a closing date.

"The whole donation process was perfectly simple.  The closing itself took only 10 or 15 minutes," said Wick.

"Sue and Glenn put a lot of love and work into their home, and multiple families will benefit from their generous gift.  One hard-working low-income family will purchase the new home built on the property. Numerous other families will benefit as the materials saved from the existing home are brought to the ReStore for resale," said Nelson.

For Wick, it's much simpler than that.  "It just seemed like the right thing to do."