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Affordable Housing Program Success Stories
Earth Day ‘Blitz Build’ Draws Habitat Founder to WV Hills
 Between 150 and 200 volunteers - including the co-founders of Habitat for Humanity and others from as far away as New York and Vermont - spent the week of Earth Day 2008 in Pendleton County, West Virginia, going ‘green’ and giving hope.
The occasion was the rapid-fire construction of a new home and the renovation of a dilapidated trailer using green building techniques, with both projects assisting two families in critical need of clean, safe shelter. “The Millard & Linda Fuller Earth Day Blitz Build”, named in honor of Habitat’s founders who currently lead The Fuller Center for Housing, was organized by Almost Heaven Habitat for Humanity and Potomac Highlands Partnership. Both projects were undertaken to lower the carbon footprint of the homeowners and to increase the long-term affordability of the homes by lowering energy and maintenance costs.
The components of the new house are environmentally friendly and energy efficient and include features such as in-floor hydronic radiant heating. Materials and techniques, however, are affordable and available to anyone. Says Michelle Connor, the Blitz Build Coordinator: “We used off-the-shelf technologies to show people that going green is doable.” An Earth Day Fair was held at the build site, and a representative of the West Virginia Department of Energy encouraged Mountaineers to go green.
“The Millard & Linda Fuller Earth Day Blitz Build” benefited Trish Simmons and her children Brittany, 12, and Wesley, 9. Trish lost her husband in a house fire in 2004 and has struggled to support her kids on limited income. The Simmons children have experienced health problems caused by damp, moldy living conditions in a trailer. As a new Habitat homeowner, Trish assumes a low-cost, no-interest mortgage that she can afford.
Juanita Bennett, an elderly, disabled woman whose home was destroyed by floods in 1981, had lived in a decrepit trailer. Her sole means of support is Supplemental Security Income. The rehabilitation of her trailer helps reduce her utility bills, provides a cheery, safe environment and allows her to avoid life in a nursing home.
FHLBank Pittsburgh, a longtime supporter of Almost Heaven Habitat, helped fund the Simmons’ new home.
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