Home for humanity on In His Footsteps
A decent house for an affordable price. What a simple philosophy.
Do you need a house?
Can you help build a house?
Do you want to meet good people doing good stuff?
Shawn Means tells us how to help.
Janna Minued shares what a difference a good house made.
Listen now to Home For Humanity
Scroll to read the transcript rather than listen. Also links to information in the program.
These articles are written by Margaret Agard author of the In His Foot Steps memoirs:
Overwhelmed with more to do than time to do it in, Margaret began giving her daily to-do list to God. That’s when her new life began.
“”I liked the spunk and matter of fact way the author describes her daily walk with God. I liked the bits and pieces of wisdom throughout. It was a breath of fresh air from what I’m used to reading. It has little to do with productivity and everything to do with being led by the Spirit and serving others by asking God what to do every day.“
Justine
GoodreadsMale Speaker: Welcome to In His Footsteps with award winning author, Margaret Agard, sharing practical tips for living a joy-filled life and amazing interviews with people who do. Now, here’s Margaret.
Margaret Agard: Have you noticed that some of the houses in West Virginia aren’t in the best of conditions? And that a lot of people have to live in houses like that. Do you know there’s an organization that gets people into new and better homes for no interest mortgages, no interest mortgages, hearing about that today?
Male Speaker: Now, here’s this week’s Bible question and answer brought to you by The Amazing Bible Timeline. Quickly see 6,000 years of Bible and world history together on one color coded wall poster. Find out more about The Amazing Bible Timeline or ask your own Bible question at amazingbibletimeline.com.
Margaret Agard: Why were the sailors afraid of the Syrtis Sands. Okay, where are they found in the Bible? It’s actually in Acts 27 when Paul went to Rome and at one point on the trips, the sailors expressed the fear of those sands and you have to wonder why sailors in the ocean would be afraid of sands. Now, here’s why. Ancient historians and geographers who lived at that time and they said the sands were actually shallow gulfs off the coast of Africa and there was a greater and lesser gulf and once caught in the gulf, it was impossible for a large sailing vessel to get out and to land safely. And in addition, inside those gulfs are these miles long sandbars and if you got stuck on one of those sandbars miles and miles from shore, you were going to die. So, that’s why they were afraid of them.
Did you grow up in one of those West Virginia homes where you had to stand as closed as you could to the fireplace and the front part was warm but the part was freezing until you turn around because there’s no insulation in the walls or the roof? And it today, it doesn’t have to be like that, does it? Some people still are living in homes that are like that and there’s an organization committed to getting everyone into warm, comfortable homes. Today, you’re going to hear from the head of that organization in Charleston, Shawn Means and one of the new homeowners and you’ll learn how you can get involve either by helping or to get a home yourself.
Tell us a little bit about Habitat for Humanity.
Shawn Means: Well, Habitat for Humanity is ecumenical Christian housing ministry that began in Americus, Georgia in 1976 and have become the largest homebuilder in the world.
Margaret Agard: Well, how many homes a year does Habitat for Humanity do?
Shawn Means: Well, overall in globally speaking, we’ve built more than 300,000 homes, housed more than a million people. Locally, here in Kanawha and Putnam County where we work, we’ve built 147 houses, renovated a few along the way but for the most part, we build new houses.
Margaret Agard: New built.
Shawn Means: Correct. We do renovations when we have the opportunity to do so. It’s more predictable to build a new home because you know exactly the cost that are involved and when you get into renovations, sometimes, you never know exactly what you’re getting into but oftentimes, when we were donated—
Margaret Agard: I know that for sure because we just renovated this old farmhouse and it would have cost us a lot less to knock it down.
Shawn Means: Sometimes, that’s the case. Sometimes, we’re donated perfectly good houses and all they need is a little bit of updating and electrical and plumbing and a little insulation, make them energy efficient and we can do that far less than we can build a new home. So, we do that when we can.
Margaret Agard: Okay, and is all of your staff volunteer or some of your staff paid?
Shawn Means: Oh, no, we have both paid and volunteer staff. We have far more volunteers than we have paid staff. We have as far as program staff, go with seven people. We do this to professionalize certain areas that are quite critical. We operate into the same banking laws and responsibility and things like that.
Margaret Agard: And how do the mortgages work and how do they do the down payments? Could you explain that?
Shawn Means: Sure. We have a very simple process as far as our finance strategy (guys). We call it biblical economics. we got the idea from the pages of the Old Testament where it says if you loan money to someone who is poor, you don’t charge them interest and so that is the bedrock of what we do. We provide folks who need a place to live with the money essentially in the form of building the house for them. We donated money in materials and whatever it cost to build a house then we allow the family to pay that back in the form of a zero interest mortgage over anywhere from 20 to 30 years depending on what meets their financial needs.
The money is paid back in the form of these mortgages then it gets recycled into new houses and we continue the process, building new houses all the time out of what we call the fun tree humanity.
Margaret Agard: Are they still expected to do sweat equity?
Shawn Means: Our families, all of the families that will own a home have to do at least 250 hours of sweat equity up to 500 hours depending on their family makeup. Sweat equity, we defined as something that you do with Habitat Humanity to further the calls of building the calls. It might be your own house that you’ll help to build or it might be your neighbor’s house but you have to put in all that sweat equity upfront before you can actually take ownership of the house. It’s a very important part of our program.
In addition to that, families have to pay a small down payment. They have to pay for the first year’s homeowners insurance because after all, they are homeowners and they have to protect their investment just like everybody else does.
Margaret Agard: Have you seen their lives change from this? Have you seen from those 147 families that you’ve housed?
Shawn Means: Well, obviously, the 147 families that lived in Habitat houses now have had their lives changed radically. You can point to all kinds of sociological studies that have been done that say that people that own homes are more likely to have children that don’t take part in risky behavior that they do better in school. They become productive members of society. There’s all kinds of evidence like that but there’s also just the comments and things that everybody hears that when your (home buyers), you’re taking care of, life is easier. When we have more energy, more time and can focus better on the other important things in life, it’s really hard to put a number with that. It’s really hard to quantify it but you can see it. When you see it, you know it and you can see the effect that it has on people.
The other thing—
Margaret Agard: One of the things I read that was interesting, in one of the books I read because I’ve worked with Habitat for Humanity quite a few years not since we’ve moved here but when I lived near DC, it was interesting that people just feel better about themselves and they take better care of themselves and their things.
Shawn Means: No question about it and I think that’s especially true for children. We’ve seen that over and over again. We’ve seen children come out of Habitat for Humanity homes that have gone on to greater heights than their parents ever did because they just have a different environment and different outlook in life.
But we also see it with adults. We’ve seen it with adults who had struggled with their housing conditions their whole life and suddenly, you’re put into a decent place and find it a new (pride) in life. I would be remiss though if I didn’t also talk about the impact that Habitat for Humanity has on its volunteers.
Margaret Agard: I want to hear about those volunteers. I would tell my daughters all the time, well, now, they’re married but when they weren’t, I would say, if you want to meet a good guy who knows how to work with his hands, it’s just about service and helping people, you should go to Habitat for Humanity Saturday mornings. That’s what you should do. Forget going out dancing Friday nights, just go to Habitat for Humanity Saturday mornings.
Shawn Means: That’s a very good point. We have a lot of college-age folks who come and work on spring break the same reason. Instead of just going out and hanging out for (a lot, you know,) for the week and getting into who knows what, they can use that week. It could be very productive on Habitat for Humanity work site all across the country and find a much more rewarding situation, then they’ll find in those places.
Margaret Agard: So, what do you with people who volunteer? What if the volunteer that don’t really have any skills?
Shawn Means: Well, if you have the ability to move around a construction site, there are things that we could do with you on the site. You’d be surprised at that, the skill level that we can put to work in very productive jobs on a jobsite. I like to say that house building isn’t rocket science. It’s just a matter of a lot of little jobs coordinated together and we can take some folks with just any skill that will really—in addition to that, we have other ways that folks can volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. We have committees that work very hard to select the families that will live in the houses and to provide support to those families, retraining and things like that. We always need folks for that and we always need people to help us with marketing and fundraising and that’s always something we need help with.
In addition to that, we operate Habitat for Humanity ReStore where we resell used and surplus building materials and we can use volunteers in there. It’s a typical store setting so a lot of folks regardless of their skill level can find some meaningful work to do there.
Margaret Agard: If you’re just tuning, you’re listening to In His Footsteps. It’s Margaret Agard and today, you’ll be hearing from Shawn Means and Jenna who work with Habitat for Humanity and you know, one of the best places to get used building materials or to match those old (cupboards) or things that you’ve got is the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.
Yes, I love the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. We go there all the time. We take stuff and we buy stuff. So, we bring stuff to you and we buy stuff and what I like about it is often people are remodelling and what do you do with the old door? You don’t want to take it to the dump or the windows or that hardware on those cupboards that you’re replacing, things that are good stuff and you know someone else could use them, where you could take them and I think Habitat for Humanity ReStore is just a wonderful place and if you were actually doing any kind of 50’s retro stuff, it’s a great place to go.
Shawn Means: It really is.
Margaret Agard: Get lighting.
Shawn Means: You never know. You never know what you’re going to find in the ReStore and I had things and just amazing things come through there. The idea of ReStore started in Canada and then moved to Texas and has worked its way back in north. Since then, we’ve had a ReStore now for almost 12 years and in that time, it has become our biggest fundraising activity. We bring in so much money for building houses through the ReStore. I can’t even begin to tell you how important it is to us but in addition to that—
Margaret Agard: Now, where is it located again? I mean, I can get there but I don’t know the address.
Shawn Means: Our ReStore in Charleston is located at 301 Piedmont Road which is near downtown area towards the end of Court Street.
Margaret Agard: Okay and people can get to it or it’s open Mondays through Saturdays, is that correct, 9:00 to what?
Shawn Means: It is open every day except Sunday and it’s open from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm.
Margaret Agard: Yes, so dropped at 8:00. We’ve done that. I think it was a construction store but 9:00; 9:00 to 6:00 and we got our cupboards for our kitchen and we got cupboards from the 50’s that are true solid wood and I think that all the cupboards that we paid for everything was about $500 plus, then we had to stain them and refinish them and we were looking at $10,000 for cupboards front—
Shawn Means: So true.
Margaret Agard: —and not solid wood. So, it’s a great place to go. So, how did you get involved?
Shawn Means: Well, my story, it starts a long time ago. I’ve been working for Habitat for Humanity for 17 years as my job but before that I was a volunteer for about four or five years. I started just like most people do, I started working on the construction site and was—
Margaret Agard: How come?
Shawn Means: How come I got involved?
Margaret Agard: Yes.
Shawn Means: I grew up in the building industry and my family business is a (contracting) business and so that kind of work just came natural to me. At that time, I got involved with Habitat, I was actually working in the building materials industry selling building materials and one of the contractors that was working with Habitat for Humanity in the early days when they just had started here was one of my customers and so I got to know him a little bit and he invited me to come out.
I started working on the job site on Saturday mornings for a few days and for a few weeks and got to know the family whose house we were building and just kind of snowballed from there. I got more and more involved because I saw the incredible impact that it had on that person’s life and that it was having on my own.
Margaret Agard: What kind of impact that it have on your own life?
Shawn Means: It really brought to me an awareness of what was important. At that time, I started volunteering, I had a small child and knew that I wanted something different for her. I wanted to demonstrate love for neighbor in that way and so I was able to get more and more involved with Habitat. She’s 23 years old now and she’s never known anything but her dad being involved with Habitat for Humanity which is kind of nice. It’s kind of her nice role model that I was able to put out there for her.
Margaret Agard: Right. It is great for teens. I did take my teens with me through their teen years. We went to Soup Kitchens and we went to Habitat for Humanity and I just think if you have kids, haul them out with you. Is it mainly church groups who show up or is it mainly individuals? How do your volunteer groups work?
Shawn Means: Almost all of our volunteers have some kind of a faith connection, I found over the years. It might not necessarily be coming out as a church group. They oftentimes are employees group from a particular business or a civic club or things like that but it’s always remarkable as to how many folks are connected to a faith community of some kind but certainly, we work with everyone. Churches that will actually sponsor an entire house and invite—
Margaret Agard: Oh, really?
Shawn Means: —their congregation to come out and build the entire house from start to finish. So, there’s lots of different ways that we can have folks who want to contribute their time.
Margaret Agard: If people are interested in any of the three activities whether it’s, gosh, I could use a house or I want to help build a house or I want to go ReStore or help at ReStore, how do they found out about it?
Shawn Means: Well, the easiest way is just to call our office at 720-0141, that’s (304) 720-0141. You can also find a lot of information on our website and that’s hfhkp.org that stands for Habitat for Humanity Kanawha and Putnam dot org.
Margaret Agard: You know what? Some people have husbands who just are always starting new projects because they’re retired and they don’t know what to do except build and the best place for them to do that is at Habitat and tell them to stop ripping up your house but maybe I’m the only one with that problem.
Now, you’re going to meet Jenna, one of the new homeowners. She is so excited. You’re going to love what she has to say. This could be you or someone you know. I asked Jenna to tell you how she got started with Habitat.
Jenna: When I really get involved with Habitat for Humanity was through my job, Jackson & Kelly law firm and I did volunteer work for Habitat.
Margaret Agard: So, the law firm itself has a group that goes out and volunteers, is that what happens?
Jenna: Yes.
Margaret Agard: Okay.
Jenna: It was a group that we went out and landscape—
Margaret Agard: And when did it occur to you that, oh, you could get a house that way?
Jenna: Somebody mentioned to me a couple of years ago and by me having doubt and fear, I was scared to sign up out of fear. I said, well, I’m not going to get a house. They’re not going to give me a house and things to that nature and—
Margaret Agard: Oh, Jenna, you were saying, no (forum), is that what you were doing?
Jenna: Yes.
Margaret Agard: First thing I say to my kids, don’t say no for people. Let them say no.
Jenna: I know. It was just like I guess it was a fear, you know, it was a fear—
Margaret Agard: You didn’t want to get your hopes up.
Jenna: Yes, I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I didn’t want to get (let down) and then, keep in mind, I’m a mother of four children. So, I was like, even though I’ve always worked hard and always try to maintain my hopes, desire was one day to become a homeowner but (not in many years) but doubt and fear sometimes, enemy can put that against us so therefore, I wasn’t even thinking clear. So, one day, we went to landscape and it was like, Jenna, you really, my co-workers, they were like, “Jenna, you really need to fill out the application and see what you need to do and really go forward and try to see if they may be able to help you get a house.” And I was like, okay, you know what? I’ll fill out the application. I said, nothing beats a failure but a try so I filled out the application—
Margaret Agard: Nothing beats a failure but a try, that’s good. Okay, go ahead.
Jenna: And so I filled out the application and sent it in not knowing that Habitat would respond. They responded back and that’s when I went in for an interview and things to that nature and from that day forward, it was just like a flower that blossomed. I can’t even, the whole experience is just overwhelming.
Margaret Agard: You have to fill out an application and they looked it over and then they, so you have to meet certain criteria, I’m assuming.
Jenna: Yes.
Margaret Agard: Okay.
Jenna: You have to meet criteria and I thought I didn’t meet the criteria, being a single parent, I thought this was just a home that, a house that had to have people that work and you had to be a certain income. It was just all—I wasn’t for sure what it was what needs to be done but then when I (found) the criteria being that’s when I just went for it and—
Margaret Agard: So, the criteria is more actually aimed for people who wouldn’t be able to get a house otherwise, isn’t it? Isn’t it more—
Jenna: It’s not so much wouldn’t get a house because there’s stipulations. You have to have pretty much decent credit.
Margaret Agard: Okay.
Jenna: There’s just criteria, you have to, it’s like more or less a low income. (They don’t just) go based on your income as well as your living conditions. I lived in a house and the living conditions were horrible.
Margaret Agard: Yes.
Jenna: So—
Margaret Agard: Oh, we’ve looked at some places here in West Virginia because we don’t have a ton of money but we have some retirement money that we thought we could maybe get a house and fix it up for a rental and it’s amazing to me what people live in out of desperation really, and of choice.
Jenna: It was just a blessing due to the fact because I made decent money, being a single parent, I make decent money and therefore, with the Habitat program, it just opened the door to where I said to myself, why would I pay to maintain someone else’s house and really (I could) pretty much to have my own.
Margaret Agard: Yes.
Jenna: That was always my train of thought. It was like, I said, I would never thought this soon in my life that I would ever be able to afford a house.
Margaret Agard: Are your kids still at home?
Jenna: Yes, they are, all four of them.
Margaret Agard: And what’s their age range.
Jenna: I have one that’s 20. I have one that’s 13. I have one that’s 12 and then a 7.
Margaret Agard: And then one that’s 7? Okay, I kind of missed that last part.
Jenna: Yes.
Margaret Agard: Okay, and how did they feel about it? Did they help you get in your work, your sweat equity or whatever you call it?
Jenna: My eldest daughter did but my eldest daughter, due to her she has like limited because in 2011 almost lost her to Graves disease so—
Margaret Agard: Oh, yes.
Jenna: So, therefore, her help and stuff kind of limit her but she did put in when time permitted her because she’s a full time student. When time permitted, she did work over at the ReStore. Yes, she did.
Margaret Agard: Yes, I guess, you can’t really be 13 and 12 and working on this, yes.
Jenna: You can’t, yes, there’s the age limit as well when you try to put in a sweat equity. Working on the job site, they require you to be, if I’m not mistaken, 16 years of age, `6 or 17 but I think that—
Margaret Agard: Could you have friends like you could, I know people volunteer at Habitat all the time but could sometimes a friend come and say, I’m going to do her sweat equity for her?
Jenna: Yes.
Margaret Agard: You can?
Jenna: They could help with some of your hours, yes, they can. I can’t remember off the top of the head but there’s a certain percent that friends and family are allowed to help towards her sweat equity hours, yes.
Margaret Agard: That’s good. That’s good. So, are you in your house now?
Jenna: Yes, ma’am, I am.
Margaret Agard: Did you get the pick the paint colors?
Jenna: It was a wonderful experience. I was able to pick out the outside color of my house. I was able to pick out like the color of the, in the kitchen, the countertops and the color of the stain of my porch and I’m trying to think, it was so much—what I mean it was a process, it’s a process.
Margaret Agard: Oh, yes. People, I used to help new home builders put in software and you could see people were just, “Please, don’t ask me one more question and just do it, because there’s so much to choose.”
Jenna: What I tell people all the time, this was the most humbling experience that I have ever experienced in my lifetime because—
Margaret Agard: Why is that?
Jenna: —somebody, I could say, by me working full time. I work full time. Saturdays, I want to rest but you know, that’s the only day of the week that I could actually put in my sweat equity hours and some days I just was tired, didn’t feel like doing it or even doing the week when we get off and you go to classes and—
Margaret Agard: Oh, you have classes to become the homeowner? Oh, I like that.
Jenna: Yes, you have workshops which were wonderful, wonderful. I mean—
Margaret Agard: What kind of workshop? Are they money management or home maintenance?
Jenna: Yes, I went to the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class which I learned so much about handling my finances that I did not know. They also teach you how to become a good neighbor. They teach you weatherization of your house, what needs to be done seasonal. I mean, plumbing, electrician class, landscaping and some of the landscaping. I went to so many—
Margaret Agard: Wow!
Jenna: I still go to the workshops when time permits. I still sign up for the workshop because gaining knowledge even by being a homeowner just like I said, if I wouldn’t had the knowledge Habitat has given me, then I would have been just jumping in almost to light fire.
Margaret Agard: Right.
Jenna: If I would became a homeowner any other way. So—
Margaret Agard: In fact, I just noticed, I’m going to just insert this, that there’s a class starting out the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, I think it’s on Saturdays. People should check, for women to learn how to do home maintenance and it’s three classes starting with general maintenance and that may include some specific, taking care of your washing machine and stuff that women don’t think about doing and weatherization, similar to the class you took and then one called, I forgot what they call it but it has to do with decorating.
Jenna: Yes, I’m telling you, the classes are wonderful. The classes they offer are wonderful. The people that host them are wonderful. We did an organization class. That class had taught to get rid of stuff because look, people don’t realize you accumulate things and then you become a hoarder, then your house is clutter and things of that nature. So that class really helped me because I was a clutter bug when it came to paper. I didn’t know what to hold on to versus what to get rid of—
Margaret Agard: Right.
Jenna: —she just showed how to or keep it organized. What you need to keep on hand, on a file and copies of. I mean, it’s just wonderful. The classes are wonderful. I encouraged anyone to take in the community, to take those classes because gaining knowledge, it just helps you in the real world, whether you’re renting or whether you’re a homeowner.
Margaret Agard: So, you can take the class even if you’re not getting a house from them? You can take these workshops.
Jenna: Yes.
Margaret Agard: Okay.
Jenna: Yes.
Margaret Agard: Well, some of them, maybe not Dave Ramsey or—
Jenna: Maybe not all—
Margaret Agard: Yes.
Jenna: I don’t know if Dave Ramsey, if they have opened it up to the public.
Margaret Agard: Okay, all right. But it’s still a good thing to look into. Hey, how about your kids? Have you seen any difference since you moved into your new house?
Jenna: Yes, I have. My kids were not able, due to area we lived in before, my kids were not able to go outside due to people shooting and just—
Margaret Agard: Are you in Charleston?
Jenna: Yes, Charleston. Yes, Charleston.
Margaret Agard: I kind of expected that in DC. I guess I didn’t realize it was in Charleston.
Jenna: I was on the west side of Charleston. I didn’t allow my children to come outside. Basically, I really (spooled) them and they were more or less inside, kids and the only time we went out is like if we went to church or something or sometimes, I might walk them (clean) up the boulevard just so they could get out and get some fresh air or basically, I would just let them play when they’re at the school program but personally, I wouldn’t let them go outside the house—
Margaret Agard: And now?
Jenna: —because of the—
Margaret Agard: Yes.
Jenna: They stay outside. They’d be all up in the hills now. It’d be hilarious because my 7-year-old, come on, they will go up in the woods and it’s like, I get so thrilled because they are able to go outside. They have friends now up on the hill as well. Being able to go up and almost like a nature thing, they get to go up in the woods and then they take pictures, talk about, “Mom, did you see the bear? The bear crawled on the tree.” It gets hilarious.
Margaret Agard: Really?
Jenna: Yes.
Margaret Agard: Oh, I love that. I love that, yes. That’s wonderful.
Jenna: They’re loving it.
Margaret Agard: Now, anything else you want to say?
Jenna: I encouraged like, people don’t even learn about Habitat as a whole because a lot of people think that Habitat that you’re getting something but they don’t realize how hard that part of families coming to Habitat has to work to get their house. This is not a free—
Margaret Agard: It’s not a charity, it’s not a handout.
Jenna: No, it’s not—
Margaret Agard: It’s a hand up.
Jenna: It’s not a charity. It’s not anything free. We work very hard and we go through a lot but we learn knowledge as homeowners to become good, upstanding homeowners and it’s just a wonderful program for anyone that may think, I just encourage anybody that would love to be a homeowner to don’t be like me have doubt. Step out on faith and fill out the application.
Margaret Agard: And if you’re in a county that doesn’t have it because there’s place in Summersville but people here or all over the state and you’re in the position that you could help start Habitat for Humanity group in your area, then I also encourage you to contact the Charleston Kanawha Habitat and find out how to get it going because I helped start one in DC and now, it’s going great guns. You can start them anywhere. So, yes, help the people. Help your neighbors.
Male Speaker: You can find out more about how to have the joy that comes from living each day for God while still keeping up with daily life in the book, “In His Footsteps, How to be Happy in Every Situation” available at the website inhisfootsteps.com or online at amazon.com.
Margaret Agard: You can get more information on our guests and our discussion today including replays of the show at inhisfootsteps.com. Thanks for joining us today. I am Margaret Agard. You can reach me at P.O. Box 52 Fort McCoy, FL or through my website https://inhisfootsteps.com. I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Be sure to join us next week for more practical tips on living a God-directed life and amazing interviews with people who do.
More Information:
Charleston WV Habitat for Humanity