Local Groups Team Up To Build Syracuse Habitat Home
Local Groups Team Up To Build Syracuse Habitat Home
Posted
Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Local Groups Team Up To Build Syracuse Habitat HomeSYRACUSE- Wawasee Building Trades Vocational Class and Habitat For Humanity of Kosciusko County are working together to build a home in Syracuse.
There are 18 Wawasee High School students, juniors and seniors, from two vocational classes, that are building the home. Habitat selected a family to receive the home.Syracuse-North Webster Housing Initiative financed the project. They received a $30,000 grant from the Rinker Family Foundation to pay for supplies and building expenses, according to Mark Eastway, chairman of the Syracuse-North Webster Habitat Initiative.
The remaining funds were raised through various fund-raisers and individual donations.
A typical Habitat house costs approximately $65,000 to build. But because of the labor of the building trades students, the Syracuse home will cost $50,000 less, according to Lori Harman, Habitat For Humanity of Kosciusko County executive director.
"Habitat For Humanity seeks to help eliminate sub-standard housing in Kosciusko County," Harman said.
"Through partnership with our families we not only build houses, but we build lives."
The homeowner will be required to pay a 1 percent down payment on the construction cost of the home. After move in, the family will make monthly mortgage payments at zero percent interest.
The home is being built at 602 S. Manor Drive, Syracuse, and is Habitat's 19th home built in Kosciusko county.
Brenda Cramer, a single mother, and her four children: Timothy, 12, Tiffany, 14, Christopher, 18, and Kirk, 19, were selected by a Family Selection Committee from Habitat For Humanity to receive the home.
The Cramers have lived in a trailer in Whispering Pines Trailer Park, Warsaw, for the past 8-1/2 years. The trailer has windows, doors, and a roof that leaks.
Cramer has been employed at Maple Leaf Farms for the past nine years.
"I'm excited and happy that the students can learn new skills and use my home to do it," Brenda said.
The one-story home will have three bedrooms, 1-1/2 bathrooms, a living room, dining room and kitchen.
The Cramers were selected to receive the home based on need for adequate housing, ability to pay and willingness to partner with Habitat.
Wawasee Building Trade students began construction on the home the first week of October, with plans for the homeowner to move in the home in January, according to Ed Waltz, Wawasee Building Trades instructor.
Waltz said there are two building trades classes from Wawasee High School that are working on the home, both averaging five hours a week on the home, a total of 25 hours.
Waltz teaches the students building skills in a classroom setting and then they apply those skills on the home.
The students are building the home from the ground up by installing flooring, framing, putting in windows, and siding the home.
Waltz said he has been an instructor for the Building Trades program for 16 years, and said the class builds one home a year.
"The purpose of the class is to give the students an entry-level skill that they can take with them after high school to get a job with a contractor," Waltz said.
Waltz also said the he hopes the students will gain an appreciation for volunteering.
Tony Medina, a Wawasee Building Trades student, said he has learned a lot in the classroom and while building the home.
"I've learned how to lay foundation and how to put up walls, and I thank the family for trusting us to build the home," Medina said.
