'Lucky' couple volunteers to help others

Katy and Shane Smith had about a foot and a half of water in their rental house in Slidell, La., after Hurricane Katrina. The couple briefly moved to Austin, Texas, after the storm, but they worried about their parents’ ability to recover on their own back in Louisiana. They returned to Slidell and moved in with Shane’s mother—in her damaged house, which does not have a working toilet.

“Our neighbors have a camper—we use their bathroom,” Katy explains while taking a water break on the St. Tammany West Habitat for Humanity build site in nearby Abita Springs, La. “We’re roughing it a little bit.”

The Smiths are looking for a place of their own, but housing is hard to come by on Louisiana’s Northshore; much of the housing stock was destroyed or damaged by Katrina, and what remains is priced at a premium. Between Katy’s job at the local Lowe’s store and Shane’s work with a contractor doing hurricane repairs, they have not yet managed to save enough to make finding a place of their own a reality.

Think the Smiths sound like pretty good candidates to partner with Habitat for Humanity? Then you might be surprised to learn that they were not on the build site to earn "sweat-equity" hours; they were just volunteering to help out someone else.

“My situation isn’t so bad,” Katy says with a shrug.

Shane agrees: “Of course we’d like a house. We’re looking for a place, working on saving for a down payment…. But we’re doing OK. And people with families, with kids, should definitely get into houses first. Kids need a place to go home to.”

The Smiths are like many volunteers you find on Habitat build sites throughout the Gulf Coast these days. When so many people have lost so much, even those who are “lucky” need help.