[Southsider2k12]

http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/200.../05/news/n3.txt

LaPorte, City Habitats will merge

By Laurie Wink, The News-Dispatch

LaPORTE - Rather than compete with each other for funds, materials and volunteers, the two LaPorte County chapters of Habitat for Humanity will merge March 1.

Dwight Graham, executive director of LaPorte County Habitat for Humanity, and Joy Schmidt, with Michigan City Habitat for Humanity, agree the merger will strengthen efforts to develop affordable housing for low-income families in the county. Michigan City's headquarters will be joining LaPorte's office at 809 Jefferson St.

“There'll be some cost savings, but that's not the real reason for combining,” Graham said. “The main thing is the ability to combine boards and get more people involved, to be more efficient and be able to grow.”

Habitat for Humanity is a worldwide organization that works through local affiliates. Each affiliate is responsible for fund raising, selecting building sites, identifying partner families and providing construction materials and mortgage services.

Graham said his chapter was chartered as the LaPorte County Habitat for Humanity in 1986, so no changes will be required to serve the entire county. The Michigan City chapter formed in 1992, as a splinter group from the LaPorte organization, but Graham said no one seems to remember why the split occurred. He expects the volunteer-driven organization to build two houses a year in Michigan City and two in LaPorte. Longer range plans call for branching out into Kingsford Heights and Westville.

Graham said the most pressing need of the county's Habitat is to secure a 1,500- to 2,000-square-foot warehouse for storage.

“I get companies calling me all the time saying they want to donate shingles, siding and other materials, but we have no place to put them,” Graham said. Donated materials reduce the cost of a house for the partner families, who have to help with construction and make payments on the interest-free mortgage.

Habitat volunteers do not need to have building expertise. They learn framing, siding, drywalling, roofing and other skills at workshops offered by Habitat. In fact, volunteers actually build sections of a house that can be taken to the building site once the weather cooperates.

The Habitat board is scheduling workshops in March and April. Graham encourages people to volunteer so they can learn how to do things for their own homes. Construction tools are provided.

Graham, a former college professor, said he's been a do-it-yourselfer for years and works on the houses as a volunteer. Sue Downs is the construction manager and electrician for all of the local Habitat's building projects.

Contact reporter Laurie Wink at lwink@thenewsdispatch.com.

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Curious where their next Habitat home location will be in 2017. In some years, they had as many as FOUR BUILDS:

http://www.laportehabitat.org/About/History/

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