Lowe’s partnership connects families to Habitat houses

Lowe’s, a national partner in Habitat’s work, recently announced it is extending its ongoing commitment to Habitat‘s affordable-housing work across the country with a new five-year, $20 million commitment. Through 2008, Lowe’s has supported nearly 1,500 Habitat houses built or renovated in the United States with grants ranging in size from $1,000 to $50,000. Additionally, Lowe’s is one of Habitat’s largest disaster-relief donors, contributing nearly $3 million domestically to Gulf Coast Recovery and internationally to Habitat’s Asian Tsunami recovery effort.

One of the families touched by Lowe’s commitment to Habitat for Humanity, Marisha Swanier and her two daughters, 17 and 11, lived in a small apartment in Gulfport, Miss., when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. Swanier moved to Dallas after the storm to pursue a job opportunity, but she quickly returned to Gulfport to care for her mother, who had suffered a stroke, and her autistic sister. In post-Katrina Gulfport, Swanier discovered affordable housing was scarce. So she applied for a Habitat home, and her application was approved just a few days before Christmas 2006.

“It was the best Christmas gift ever!” Swanier exclaimed. “It was perfect. I was just ecstatic.”

Swanier spent all of 2007 completing her sweat equity and the homeownership education courses required by Habitat while balancing a full-time job, and caring for her mother, her sister, and her daughters.

Swanier sees that these experiences provide a major life lesson for her children. She makes intentional efforts to teach her oldest daughter how to become a responsible homeowner.

“My kids love the house,” she said. “They have so much more room and a yard. But I want them to know how to take care of it, too. I’m showing my oldest the importance of being a homeowner, learning to manage finances and paying bills on time.

“This experience has let them know that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.”

Thousands of miles removed from Swanier’s house, in the Indian Ocean Basin, Lowe’s funding helped support rebuilding efforts with families such as Gracy’s, a resident of Tamil, Nadu, India.

Gracy lived with her husband and the youngest son in a thatched hut in Colachel town, Kanyakumari district. During the rainy season, her family would move around inside the hut, trying to stay dry because there were leaks in the roof. Once the rain stopped, Gracy would scoop water out of the hut and bring in sand to re-level the floor. When the tsunami swept in, it destroyed the structure and killed Gracy’s husband, leaving her and son Reagan to live among 175 other families in a temporary shelter. Sharing 12 temporary toilets and living in small, partitioned areas, the families were given sleeping mats, rice, lentils, cooking oil and some cooking utensils.

Once Habitat rebuilding got under way, Gracy and Reagan assisted volunteers in clearing debris, carrying construction materials and curing walls for their home.

“I was very surprised that people I did not know would help me to build my house,” she said of this experience. “I was living in a thatched hut and God sent people to help me rebuild. My duty was to help construct the house.

“God took my husband’s life and gave me a house,” continued Gracy, who now lives in her Habitat home with her son, who works as a fisherman. “As long as I live, I want to be happy, and I will be happy in this house till the end of my life. That gives me confidence.”

Mary Lopo, a single mother of four in Denver whose home was built as part of the Lowe’s-sponsored “First Families Building Homes Across America” initiative in 2006, shared Gracy’s view on gaining confidence from her home partnership experience. Prior to partnering with Lowe’s and Habitat to build her home, Lopo and her four children were sharing one bedroom in the basement of a relative’s home.

“Our home,” Mary said, “was the start of when I could see that my family, although living off of modest means, could have a goal and accomplish it. It didn't just change where we live; it changed how we think of ourselves in the world.”

Patty Clark, sales associate from Lowe’s of S.W. Mobile, Ala., has participated with her coworkers on a number of Habitat projects, including the Alabama house that launched the First Families initiative with first ladies Patsy Riley (Ala.), Karen Baldacci (Maine), and former Arkansas first lady Janet Huckabee. This Mobile-area Women Build house was constructed exclusively by Lowe’s employee volunteers following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“Everything this entire store had to offer, we provided for that house, from supplies to our knowledge to manpower, “Clark explained. “We did everything right down to placing two ferns on the porch when the house was finished. That lot was nothing but mud when we started, but working one family, one piece of wood, and one house at a time, we know what is possible. There’s now a whole neighborhood standing there, and we helped build that.”