Home sweet home

Normally, Habitat for Humanity finds a family to fill a home, but the Jasper County chapter is doing it the other way around.

Either way, Bruce Showalter, the chairperson of the Jasper County Habitat for Humanity steering committee, is just happy the organization is building its first house in Newton after re-establishing its local chapter and consolidating with Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity alongside Polk and Dallas Counties.

“We just kind of restarted our Jasper County chapter about three years ago, and this is our first house that we’re building,” Showalter said Friday, June 11 while construction workers pounded nails into the flooring of the new house. “There have been other ones built in the past in Newton.”

Representatives from Habitat for Humanity, the city and the local chapter’s steering committee were present during a dedication ceremony last week. Although a homeowner has not yet been chosen, three applications have been received so far to move in to the house.

Jasper County Habitat for Humanity has held a number of Rock the Block events where volunteers repair or spruce up homes in the area. Showalter said the program is designed to keep people in their houses longer and in turn benefit those living in the home. The program has real-life effects on people’s lives.

Showalter recalled a woman who had to call the ambulance every time she needed to go to the doctor. Imagine the costs, he said. The woman couldn’t get in and out of her house very well because she didn’t have a ramp and couldn’t drive. Rock the Block installed a ramp. No more calls to the ambulance.

For the local chapter to be able to go beyond Rock the Block and build a home for a family is a goal steering committee members had been striving for.

“Low- to moderate-income housing is really a big need in Newton,” Showalter said. “This addresses that a little bit. If this goes well, there will be opportunities to buy other lots. This was a dangerous and dilapidated (D&D) lot the city owned and we bought it off of them. One program will help another program.”

Newton Mayor Mike Hansen said in 2012 the City of Newton had begun to take a hard look at its housing initiative and find out what it could do in order to offer various types of housing opportunities in the community. Two years later, the program would grow and provide those opportunities.

“Housing like this is one of those types of housing that we very well need in our community, and supporting people that do need housing,” Hansen said. “I can’t thank volunteers and the organization enough that we can offer this type of housing … We are going to continue to move forward each and every year.”

Lance Henning, executive director of Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity, has been with the company for 18 years and has seen a lot of houses built by the volunteers making it all happen. There are benefits to the organization building houses for community, one of which is building a good housing stock.

“Housing is important for a healthy community, and having a variety of housing is important,” Henning said. “Any healthy has jobs in all kinds of income ranges. And we need to provide housing to that have those income ranges as well. Habitat for Humanity is helping providing one of those opportunities.”

Volunteer work is appreciated. Contact Diane Warner at 515-497-0501 or outreach@jaspercountyhabitat.org for volunteer opportunities.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com