Austin
Pride Build Focuses On Affordable Housing

Jun 17, 2007

The Austin GLBT Community is working together to raise the funds and labor to construct an Austin Habitat for Humanity home this fall.  The house will become the new home of a local grandmother who will purchase the house with a zero-interest Habitat mortgage loan.

A coalition of GLBT and allied organizations is forming to raise the funds and the labor to construct an Austin Habitat for Humanity home in a new subdivision in the Montopolis neighborhood.

This coalition decided to take on this project as a way of allowing the GLBT and allied communities to join forces and work together on a non-partisan project that is a major issue in our community.  Affordable housing affects us all and continues to be a growing concern for all of Central Texas.  The Pride Build project is a way for GLBT and straight people to work together, learn from one another, and help shed light on the affordable housing needs of our community. 

“Austin Habitat is proud to be working with the GLBT community in this partnership to address one of the biggest needs facing all Austinites today; affordable housing.  Austin is so diverse in its people and cultures, but we all share the need for shelter,” said Michael Willard, AHFH Executive Director.
 
"Austin is such a great place to live because its people have such big hearts and wide open arms.  It is because of this spirit that the GLBT community has thrived in Austin in such a unique and inclusive way.  We reach our highest potential when we give back to those in need, and show that we are here to make the entire community a better place for everyone.  We hope you will join us in the 2007 Pride Build - and celebrate together the power to change the world around us," said David C. Smith, Founder of the Hill Country Ride for AIDS and coalition member.

Any community organization is welcome to become a member of the coalition as long as they are committed to working with the GLBT community and agree to: A) raise funds to support the construction, and B) recruit volunteer labor for the actual build.  June 30, 2007 is the first deadline for coalition membership.

Individuals may participate by volunteering in the coming months to be a part of a work crew building the home, or may provide financial support by donating online at www.austinhabitat.org.  Additional information available at Austin Habitat for Humanity, 512-472-8788.

The Pride Build will culminate in a new house for Austin Habitat for Humanity HomeBuyer, Marta Maldonado, a 64-year old grandmother living alone in an East Austin shack.  The two-room house has broken windows, rotted floorboards and a leaky roof.  Marta pays $175 a month in rent, funds she can’t wait to apply to the zero-interest mortgage she’ll pay Austin Habitat for a new home of her own.

“I am always alone here.  Nobody comes to see me,” says Marta.  Isolation has become a way of life for a woman too ashamed of her living conditions to have friends, co-workers or family visit.  Marta welcomes the friends she’ll make while her house is under construction and looks forward to the day when she can proudly open her door to her new neighbors. 

Maldonado will complete 400 hours of sweat-equity in the Austin Habitat program as well as complete 24 HomeBuyer Education units to be eligible to purchase her new home.  

The wall raising for the Pride Build home is planned for September with fundraising efforts already underway. The Pride Build house will be one of thirty Austin Habitat houses built in the Frontier at Montana neighborhood in the Montopolis area.  Some $60,000 in materials and approximately 1,800 hours of volunteer labor are needed to complete the home. For more information please contact info@ahfh.org or call the Pride Committee at 512-472-8788


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