Courtesy photo A volunteer sands a board at a Habitat for Humanity construction site. The local HiawathaLand division of HfH has been building and restoring homes with assistance from people from around the country since 1995.

By R. R. Branstrom

rbranstrom@dailypress.net

MANISTIQUE — Habitat for Humanity operates around the globe on its mission to provide low-cost housing with interest-free loans. Its HiawathaLand branch, based in Manistique, was established in 1995 and serves the counties of Schoolcraft, Luce, Alger and half of Mackinac.

“A lot of people are under the impression we give away houses for free, but we do not. Every Habitat homeowner makes a purchase just like anyone else,” said Habitat for Humanity HiawathaLand Executive Director Ann MacGregor. “They have to pay a mortgage, they have to pay taxes and insurance, and they have to do the upkeep. The benefit of partnering with Habitat is that with doing sweat equity and with our resources, we’re able to finish a house usually less expensive than new construction.”

Over 50 years ago, on Koinonia Farm in Americus, Ga., Clarence Jordan and Millard and Linda Fuller developed a “partnership housing program” based on the concept of those in need of decent shelter working alongside volunteers to build it. They raised money for a “Fund for Humanity” to continue building more homes. In 1973, the Fullers took the concept to Zaire — now the Democratic Republic of the Congo — then returned to the U.S. a couple years later and founded Habitat for Humanity International in 1976.

The nonprofit gained accelerated traction in 1984, when former President and First Lady Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter worked hands-on with Habitat in Georgia.

“Habitat has successfully removed the stigma of charity by substituting it with a sense of partnership,” the former President has said.

The Carter Work Project, an annual working event, celebrated 40 years in 2024 while on a home-building mission to erect 30 electric houses in St. Paul, Minn.

Volunteers putting in “sweat equity” — physical effort that results in the increase in value of a property — travel to work on projects, and many are Habitat homeowners themselves. Various programs within the organization connect volunteer workers with job sites like those through HiawathaLand.

“We have volunteer groups that come here from all over the U.S., and usually work for a week at a time,” said MacGregor. “When we have qualified supervision available, we also apply for Collegiate Challenge groups, where college groups can spend their spring break or winter break with us working on a project. We work with RV Caravanners, which is a program within Habitat International. A large amount of those people primarily live in their RV, and they just travel all over the U.S.”

Any given Habitat job site likely has staff, volunteers and private contractors involved.

A party on the receiving end of a Habitat home has to go through an application process and meet certain requirements. In the application, they state what their needs are, and then Habitat goes to the home to do an evaluation. They perform a credit check and verify income. If the project is doable, they enter into an agreement with the homeowner — usually a five-year payment plan for the cost of materials at 0% interest.

Much of the work Habitat HiawathaLand has been doing recently is home rehabilitation projects, rather than building new homes from the ground up. The last new construction project was in 2021.

“The cost of building materials and property and everything is so high right now it’s not even affordable for those families. You can barely build a two-bedroom house outside of the city limits for under 200,000 anymore. That’s pretty high payment for a lower-income family,” MacGregor said.

She remarked that applications coming from outside Schoolcraft County have gone way down since COVID.

For a rehab, a home that may be foreclosed or abandoned is rebuilt. In the case of a recent rehab, MacGregor explained, Habitat came into a house from the 1930s, partially-demolished internally, that had been repossessed by a local credit union. The charity made an agreement with the credit union to buy it at a low rate, which they paid after rebuilding the house and selling it to the family in need.

“They (the credit union) recouped some of their money from it, and we were able to make it a livable, nice house for a family,” MacGregor said. “Rehabs definitely are something that we can do much more cost effectively, and we’re also saving a house in town.”

The most popular program through the Manistique division, though, is “A Brush with Kindness.” It’s a home preservation program that offers exterior work like painting, landscaping, weatherization and minor repairs to homeowners who qualify.

“We do the most we can with what they can afford payments at to get their house in a better condition,” MacGregor said.