Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity

“Water Leaking, Raccoons Moving Around in the Ceiling, the Place Falling Apart…  My Girls Deserve Better than Having to Live With That.”

Their delighted laughter and shrieks illustrate the happiness Tim’s young girls already feel as they frolic around the recently-framed doorway of what will be their future home while their dad speaks with a reporter from a local newspaper.                              

“My two daughters and I are very much looking forward to moving into a healthier, newer structure they can be proud of and a school system that is one of the best in the state,” he tells the reporter.

The 250 hours of sweat equity that Tim will put in on the construction of this home for him and his girls is a labor of love for a man who has survived being burned out of a previous apartment, a current living situation that has become untenable, and getting through what he calls “parent boot camp” – working fulltime as a rural route postal carrier while he adjusts to parenting solo.

As soon as Tim signed on as a future Habitat homeowner, the elation he felt was passed to his daughters and it was made manifest in a dramatic improvement in one daughter’s grades, and an eagerness to write in the other daughter who had previously been a reluctant learner. The distraction and discouragement the girls had been experiencing as their home life was uprooted in recent years has been replaced with the hope that comes from knowing that in the not too distant future they will have a new home in which to grow up.

“This has been such a positive and good transition for them,” says Tim. “I just knew as I went through the process of applying to work with Habitat that this was a destined thing.”

Since 1989, Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity has built decent, affordable homes with 37 low income families in Hampshire and Franklin Counties. We build our homes with volunteer labor and donations of material, supplies, land, and services. At the onset of homebuilding, a family is selected and enters into a long term partnership with Pioneer Valley Habitat. Future homeowners contribute 250 hours of labor during the construction of their home alongside volunteers from the community. Upon completion, the home is sold to the family with an affordable mortgage. Habitat is a hand-up, not a hand-out: the organization has a perpetual legacy in that all mortgage funds received are reinvested to build more homes.  We are a housing organization helping to bring stability to families, bringing more stability into our neighborhoods and communities.

Beyond the homeowners partnering with Habitat, thousands of community donors and volunteers are impacted by and have participated in the work of our local Habitat. Our construction volunteers receive on-site training ranging from basic building skills to high performance construction techniques. Volunteers are the heart, soul and muscle behind Habitat’s work. As they walk away from the construction sites, volunteers tell us that their lives have been transformed by helping build a Habitat home.