CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Some future homeowners have been waiting months, and in some cases years, for a home from Habitat for Humanity Charlotte. Because of the coronavirus crisis, some home builds have completely come to a halt.
“We’ve got a healthcare crisis, but we’ve also got a housing crisis, so we’re continuing to build,” said Laura Belcher, the president of Habitat for Humanity in Charlotte.
Belcher says now, they’re building without volunteers.
“In the past year, we’ve had close to 10,000 volunteers,” Belcher said. “To go from 10,000 to zero is a real shock to the system.”
Belcher says it’s also a bad time for it to happen.
“Usually the spring is a big time for us to start a lot of homes,” Belcher said. “We’ve got foundations poured, but we’re not starting a lot of homes right now because we don’t have the big volunteer group.”
Belcher says that’s on top of the backlog they’re currently working on.
“We’ve got I think 15 projects that are in some stage of progress, so there’s plenty for our staff to do,” Belcher said.
Belcher said the staff is getting it done, but at a much slower pace.
“In groups of five or six people,” Belcher said. “Normally you’ve got 20-25 volunteers and so folks that might’ve been hoping to move in summer and fall might get pushed back a season.”
Now, Belcher says they’re mainly focusing on the homes that are mostly finished.
“Working on the final things, installing cabinets, window sills and some of the final trim work so that we can get people into their homes,” Belcher said.
Shanquena and her kids are grateful they were able to move in in the last few weeks.
“In a time where there’s a lot of uncertainty and anxiety, being able to realize someone moved into their home, it’s a privilege to be able to do that,” Belcher said.
And that is why Belcher says they hope for volunteers to come out more than ever when the crisis is over.
“[To] accelerate the build and really help us with the backlog, and make a lot of dreams come true,” Belcher said.
Future Habitat homeowners are also supposed to be helping working on homes in what’s called “sweat equity” and they’re not able to do that either, until the state's stay at home guidelines are lifted. Belcher says they are trying to find other ways for homeowners to contribute to that.