Helping Hands: Give Me Shelter

When it comes to life's necessities-food, clothing, and shelter-Habitat for Humanity's goal is to provide affordable housing for low-income families. A non-profit ecumenical Christian housing ministry, Habitat for Humanity (HFH) invites people to work together to build houses for people in need.

"This is not a give-away program," explained Sam Viglione, president of the Big Bear Valley affiliate. "Families who are interested in a Habitat home must meet certain requirements including 500 hours of 'sweat equity' in building their home and homes for others."

In addition to the "sweat equity," requirements for ownership include: being a Big Bear resident for at least one year; being employed; and having the ability to pay the monthly mortgage, insurance, taxes and utilities. Upon meeting these requirements, homeowners are chosen without regard to race, creed or nationality.

Big Bear Valley HFH provides a 20 to 30 year, no interest mortgage on a three bedroom home at a price based on the cost of material, land, permits and fees, using volunteer labor and in-kind donations.

The first Habitat home built in the Big Bear area was completed in August 2001 in Lake Williams for a single mother and her two daughters. A second Habitat home was completed in December 2003 in Big Bear City for a single father and his two sons.

Volunteer labor is used to build the homes to keep building costs low but buildingmaterials and the land comes from the non-profit organization and donations.

"The local builders have been very supportive of HFH here in Big Bear. From the roofers to the framers to the guys who hook up the utilities, everyone is so generous with their time," said Viglione.

Local realtors have also played a key role in bringing the Big Bear homes to fruition. Rusty Barnes at Prudential Realty donated the lot for the second Habitat home in Big Bear City and Mark Dolan, Reality Executives gives a percent of each home sale to HFH as do other Reality Executive realtors.

"We are actively looking for a new home site. Purchasing the land for $60,000 makes it cost prohibitive. We need something free. Of course, it's a tax write-off to anyone who wants to donate land for a Habitat home," said Viglione.

Besides donating land, there are a number of other ways people can participate: all phases of construction, assist in land acquisition, become a board member, identify and screen families, fundraising, marketing and maintaining the financial and business records.

The Big Bear Valley HFH will be having a golf tournament fundraiser on Monday, October 24lh at Apple Valley Country Club in Apple Valley. For more information on the fundraiser or to volunteer contact either Sam Viglione at 866.0924 or Barbara Brazz at 585.4127.
— Christie Walker, September / October 2005 Big Bear Magazine

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Habitat For Humanity Moves Forward

In June, the Big Bear Affiliate of Habitat for Humanity decided the group would re-establish and move forward, in spite of losing its president and founder, Bob Barrett.

Barrett moved to the High Desert, and after several months of trying to lead the group from afar, he decided it would be best to pass the leadership position to someone who lives in the Valley.

The new board was appointed, consisting of: Sam Viglione, president; Ken Anderson, executive director; Natalie Marks, treasurer; Joy Oliver, secretary; Gary Haven and Ken Anderson, construction committee; Nancy Anderson, family selection committee; Dayle Viglione, family partnership committee; Barbara Brazz, publicity committee; Dave Brazz and Ina Niday, site selection committee; and Fred Westcott, fund-raising committee.

The board's first official decision was to appoint Bob Barrett as President Emeritus of the Habitat For Humanity Affiliate that he founded in 1996 and led for eight years.

The new board is excited about building a third Habitat home in the Valley and is searching for an affordable piece of property. Anyone who has property they would be willing to donate can contact David Brazz at (909) 585-4127. Land donations are fully deductible at appraised market value.
A bargain-priced sale of land to BBV Habitat For Humanity also carries a tax deduction.

BBV Habitat for Humanity meets the second Tuesday of every month at 5:15 p.m. at the Big Bear Presbyterian Church, 579 Knickerbocker Road, adjacent to Big Bear Elementary School. Additional board and committee members are needed and interested persons are welcome to attend.

For further information, contact Sam Viglione at (909) 866-0924.

~ Big Bear Grizzly, September 29, 2004

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Citibank Donates to Habitat for Humanity

The Big Bear Valley chapter of Habitat for Humanity accepted a $6,000 donation from the Big Bear Lake branch of the Citibank Financial Center, Monday, Dec. 1.

Sam Viglione, executive director for the local chapter of the nonprofit organization, and Ken and Nancy Anderson were on hand to accept the donation from Citibank's Linda Bathen and Annette Piguileem. The donation was made possible through Citibank's Citigrant program.

"We appreciate Citibank for giving us this wonderful donation," Viglione said.

Big Bear Valley Habitat for Humanity is nearing completion of its second housing project in the local community. The goal of Habitat for Humanity is to provide decent affordable housing.

"This is not a giveaway program," Viglione said. "Those who qualify for the homes must be able to pay a monthly mortgage. They must put in 500 hours of what we call "sweat equity," working on building the home. In return, our labor on the project is free and we carry a 30-year interest free loan."

For more information on the Big Bear Valley Habitat for Humanity call (909) 866-LOVE or write at P.O. Box 3353, Big Bear Lake, CA 92315.
~ Big Bear Grizzly, December 3, 2003

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Habitat for Humanity in Big Bear

"To help people help themselves" —

that was the dream Millard Fuller had in 1976 when he founded Habitat for Humanity International. The organization, now celebrating its 25th year, builds and rehabilitates houses with a goal of eliminating poverty housing from the face of the earth. In working toward this lofty aspiration, Habitat has built over 100,000 houses around the world and put over 500,000 people into homes of their own that they could not otherwise afford. Last year alone, volunteers constructed 17,000 houses to give over 85,000 people "a simple, decent place to rest at night."

And now there is a chapter of Habitat for Humanity working right here in our Valley. Founded almost five years ago by Barbara and Bob Barrett, this Big Bear group is about to complete construction on its first house.

Getting a chapter started in a new area is not an easy task. Habitat believes that local people know their area best, so each chapter has their own Board of Directors and committees to keep all the decision-making local. This meant the Barretts had to put together a volunteer board, get volunteers to work on key committees, and raise the funds and material donations necessary to build a house, and all done within Habitat guidelines. There are currently about 30 volunteers working on a regular basis on the local board and committees.

The selection committee's job is to screen the potential candidates for receiving a home and select the final recipients. The selection process is well defined by Habitat and the organization specifies that they are not a charity. The potential homeowner must be willing to make a serious commitment toward the organization to be considered an appropriate candidate. Their commitment comes in the form of 500 hours of "sweat-equity"— the hours of labor the family must put into the building of their own or other Habitat homes — plus, mortgage payments that the family must make to pay for the actual building costs.

The mortgage payments are not like those you would expect from a bank loan. The total cost of the home does not include labor or interest on the loan, and the monthly payment is based on what the family can afford. A home-owner candidate must have a job and make enough money to pay their monthly mortgage share, but must not be able to qualify for a regular bank loan. The selected family also has to put $500 down on their home and pay the escrow closing costs.

The Big Bear chapter had about nine applications from local people when they began working on their first house. Only five of those fit the Habitat criteria in the initial screening. Then the selection committee went to work on interviewing the remaining families, visiting them in their home and evaluating the circumstances of each. The committee's goal was to select the family with the most stability in terms of good credit, who was also the most deserving in terms of need and unlikelihood of being able to buy a home on their own in the future.

The fund development committee, chaired by Bob Barrett, worked hard to get enough local money donated that it could fund the construction of the house. Redland Federal Savings (now CalFedl donated a piece of land to get the first house started, thanks to the diligent, persuasive efforts of the late Ed Curtis. With the land in place, the construction committee went to work on getting the house built. The building tasks include coordinating volunteer efforts with the work that needs to be done by professionals and getting material and service donations from various businesses around the Valley.

Lots of Valley businesses came through with donations of time, services or materials to assist in building this first house. Some of the biggest donors include Marlarky Roofing, Scotty's Plumbing, Sunrise Electric Company, All Coast Forest Products and Steve Powell. Bob says the contractors in the Valley have been great at pitching in and that Riffenburgh Lumber and Ken Anderson Construction have been especially generous with their assistance In addition, organizations have been wonderful at providing volunteer hours. The Granada Hills Presbyterian Church came through with 15 volunteers for three days to do the siding installation and the local Kiwanians sent about a dozen volunteers to do all the interior painting.

The family selected to receive this house is Kathy Gunn, a single mom and her two teenage daughters, lulie and loleen. Besides being an applicant, Kathy had already been an active volunteer in the house-building project before her selection because she believed "it was a good cause to get involved with."

"I was ecstatic!" Kathy said about being selected. "I couldn't believe it. I'm in my early 40's and this was like a dream come true. I felt very blessed." Kathy said her daughters are very excited about the home being built for them. They've never lived in a house before and can't wait to move in.

Kathy and her daughters are contributing every chance they get to the building of their home. They do clean up work, like scrubbing floors, scraping windows and picking up the nails and trash from the yard after each heavy construction sequence. They've also done lots of painting, including sanding and painting the cedar porch all on their own. To complete the number of hours they need to honor their commitment, the family will be putting in volunteer time on the next house under construction in the area.

The cost of the house being built for Kathy will be somewhere between $50,000 and $60,000, but the appraisal will be about twice that, according to Bob He expects the house to be completed early this summer. Located in Lake Williams, the house is 1100 square foot with three bedrooms and two baths.

Rusty Barnes has donated the land for the next house and planning for that house is already in process. Bob says the mortgage payments Kathy makes will go toward funding the next house. The more houses a local group has, the more mortgage payments they have coming in toward building additional houses. So, the completion of this first house is a major accomplishment for this local group.

Much of the publicity around Habitat for Humanity comes when the organization does "Blitz Building." That's when the group constructs a group of houses, sometimes over 100, all in a week's time. Celebrities, such as former President Jimmy Carter, who is very committed to Habitat for Humanity, get involved during blitz weeks to attract more volunteers, donations and publicity around the event. But the majority of the houses built by Habitat and all their local chapters are done the way it is being done in Big Bear—one house at a time.

According to one volunteer, building houses with Habitat for Humanity is "pure love in action." If you are interested in adding your own love to the mix, whether it is through donations or volunteer hours, contact Sam Viglione at (909) 866-0924 or Habitat at the Presbyterian Church at (909) 866-LOVE, or write at P.O. Box 3353, Big Bear Lake, CA 92315.

~ Sandy Steers, Big Bear Magazine, July/August 2001