Flybye
11-30-2007, 05:46 AM
Hello there!
I am a Social Worker and have a single mom with two kids on my caseload.
About 1 1/2 years ago she lost her mother and primary care giver to kidney cancer. She lived in the same home with her mother. Her mother did not have insurance and so the medical bills were quite overwhelming.
In the midst of the illness, a predatory lender came in and convinced the terminally ill mother and the mentally ill daughter to refinance the home they were living in and use the money from the refinance to pay for the medical bills. Unfortunately, they refinanced to an adjustable rate mortgage and this summer, like so many other families in the same boat in the US, the interest rates began to creep up.
My client is unable to make the payment on her home and we have exhausted all refinancing and legal resources.
The bright spot at the end of all of this is that she is eligible for Self Help Housing, which is basically like a Habitat for Humanity build. She is required to put in 30 hours of building time per week. She can have a family member take 10 of those hours. If I can organize a volunteer effort to build the homes (there are eight in all being built at the same time by all of the families that have qualified for the build) it will make things so much easier for all of the families involved, especially her, since she is mentally ill and often times not very stable. This is a huge commitment for her.
Have any of you organized a community build like this? I am looking for suggestions and organization tips. The builds that have gone on before this one have taken about a year total and I would like to set the goal that we cut the time in half by having volunteer help.
Thanks for your suggestions!!
I am a Social Worker and have a single mom with two kids on my caseload.
About 1 1/2 years ago she lost her mother and primary care giver to kidney cancer. She lived in the same home with her mother. Her mother did not have insurance and so the medical bills were quite overwhelming.
In the midst of the illness, a predatory lender came in and convinced the terminally ill mother and the mentally ill daughter to refinance the home they were living in and use the money from the refinance to pay for the medical bills. Unfortunately, they refinanced to an adjustable rate mortgage and this summer, like so many other families in the same boat in the US, the interest rates began to creep up.
My client is unable to make the payment on her home and we have exhausted all refinancing and legal resources.
The bright spot at the end of all of this is that she is eligible for Self Help Housing, which is basically like a Habitat for Humanity build. She is required to put in 30 hours of building time per week. She can have a family member take 10 of those hours. If I can organize a volunteer effort to build the homes (there are eight in all being built at the same time by all of the families that have qualified for the build) it will make things so much easier for all of the families involved, especially her, since she is mentally ill and often times not very stable. This is a huge commitment for her.
Have any of you organized a community build like this? I am looking for suggestions and organization tips. The builds that have gone on before this one have taken about a year total and I would like to set the goal that we cut the time in half by having volunteer help.
Thanks for your suggestions!!