[bright upbeat music] [bright gentle music] - Housing.

Staying in housing.

It's just a passion of mine.

We're at a point in time where people are living in conditions that there's not enough room for them to be there.

Just tremendous opportunity to own your own home.

We're there not to do it quick.

We're there to teach you.

It's just really about a hand-up, not a hand-out.

[bright gentle music] I am the executive director for Salem County Habitat for Humanity.

I'm very engaged in the community.

I'm a determined person, and I don't like to be told no, that I can't do something, but I am a problem solver.

It's a slower pace in Salem County.

Lot of neighbor helping neighbor kind of things.

You need horse manure next door, just ask, ya know?

Things like that.

My dad and I, when I worked in corporate America and he worked for DuPont Company, we went to a Habitat build.

That was our day of service every year.

And I just wanna be able to inspire other people to be a volunteer.

My dad was going to college at the time, and he was building houses, and we were expected to be out there to help.

And when we put an addition on the house, we laid block, and it was always a learning experience.

You meet new people, you go to different places, and you try different things.

Salem County's changed a little bit over the years, not as much as a lot of the other areas.

It's not overbuilt.

There's more development.

The farmland's going away.

And it's such a strong need.

I mean, there's very little public housing.

The rentals have doubled.

People are doubled up, living in places that aren't meant for that many people.

Criteria for a Habitat house is who has the ability to pay, the willingness to partner, which is sweat equity, and who has a strong need?

Most of our homeowners are women.

It's special for them to be able to say that, "Look at all these women that came to help me today."

- We'll get the scaffolding up for the siding.

And we're gonna work outside.

We're gonna have a great day.

- A lot of the myths and truths about Habitat are that we just give away homes, and it's not true.

The homes are made affordable because of the sweat equity, because the family each puts 225 hours, each adult.

It's not meant as a punishment.

It's meant as this is the way that your house is affordable.

She is a tremendous volunteer.

I mean, we are just, they all do sweat equity, but some people volunteer anyway for Habitat.

So she started out helping us out.

Anyone that's in a Habitat house right now is paying half to a third of what a rental is right now.

It's their home.

They're just like anybody else.

It's not a stigma.

A lot of the properties that we've built upon have been donated by the townships, so that's typically how we'll get a property.

- [Volunteer] Remember to clean your house!

[bright gentle music] - Anybody's family to us.

It doesn't matter who's applying.

It's just who's gonna fill that house and what's the best use of that space.

Here, in Mannington, they gave us that land.

Nobody wanted it.

It was where people would just throw trash.

Instead of paying to have your mattress hauled away, they'd dump it here.

It was really disgusting.

[laughs] We're ecstatic because it's a beautiful lot.

It's in a great location.

They get very close during that time, you know, to build their house.

This is a group of like-minded people that are all doing this for the same reason.

These houses were $99,000.

That's a bust to anybody.

Aw, how nice.

So all of our homes have the turning radius.

The doors are wide.

So we're just kinda looking ahead and making them adaptable and accessible.

All of our homes are accessible, but this one is specifically built for someone in a wheelchair.

Most of the homes around here, they're 100 years old.

They're just not built with accessibility in mind.

[bright gentle music] Habitat's ramp program was something I started about 10 years ago.

I felt really horrible when I heard about, there was a young boy in Penns Grove, and he lived in a house.

He had a mechanized wheelchair, but it was under a tarp every night because there was no way to get it into the house.

So his mother, tiny woman, had to carry him up into the house, and he just was slumped in a regular wheelchair all day.

And I thought, "That's just horrible.

How can this happen?

How come there's nobody that can help these people?"

He can't even go out and get sun on his face and feel the warmth.

And, you know, it's a beautiful day, and he's just stuck in the house.

So I went to a local builder, and I said, "This is wrong.

Is there anything we can do?"

They put the ramp up, built it.

My dad was the leader that day.

And then I would see the little boy out with his cousins and he was racing around with his wheelchair with the kids, playing in the yard, 'cause he could go in and out anytime he wanted now.

That was kind of the start of all this.

I think one ramp, when we first started, that had been to 10 different locations.

So following that ramp was just like, this program works.

So all of a sudden, I've got five ramps.

And we're taking them down, we're putting them up as people need them.

Yeah, its here for as long as you need it.

- Yeah, thank you so much.

- Then I wrote some more grant requests and people started finding out about the program.

We have a deficit of about 10 ramps, perpetually.

There's always somebody waiting.

Typically, one goes up, one goes down every week.

Our program for the ramps has already been adopted by several other affiliates.

You know, it's been a constant struggle to find more ramp material and more money to be able to do this or find out that there are people that once they're done with them and they've received them through another means, they may wanna donate it to Habitat.

My goal when I started 12 years ago, by the year 10, was to build five homes.

We did it.

It also, what I'm told from some of them, is that they would do something like side their own home now.

Because, "Why would I pay somebody?

That wasn't that hard.

I can do that."

I think it's pretty amazing that these women are here building the homes.

- [Joe] Right there, all right?

[hammers pounding] - I believe that there is a lot of strength in numbers and that there is a lot of collaborative efforts that could help us all.

I know people.

They know me.

They see me.

They might just say, "Hey, Habitat!"

Who knew that I would be here with Habitat and building homes?

It's just very community-based.

The community here is strength, it's love, it's compassion.

It's a hug.

It's a warm hug.

I have so many people that I have met and would stop and do anything for Habitat.

I have people that are volunteers and there's a lot of retirees.

It is an aging population.

But people also that don't have a whole lot of money have time.

And to me, that's the most precious gift, is their time.

Why wouldn't you want to help people?

Why wouldn't you want that to be your calling?

So everybody can't do everything.

But I think that everybody here tries to support each other.

- One, two, three.

- Habitat!

- [Volunteer] Is that good?

[group laughs] [bright gentle music] [bright gentle music continues]