‘Blitz’ project builds home and hope
Cape Cod Home / Winter 2017 / Home, Garden & Design, People & Businesses
Writer: Allyson Plessner
‘Blitz’ project builds home and hope
Cape Cod Home / Winter 2017 / Home, Garden & Design, People & Businesses
Writer: Allyson Plessner
On a stormy week in September, while large squalls plagued the area and housing professionals alike, the town of Brewster gained a new two-story house and a family ready to contribute to the future and success of this Cape community. The first phase of construction here on Paul Hush Way, a quiet new street surrounded by 14 acres, includes the building of six Habitat homes, with the Blitz home—complete with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a porch, and a solar panel roof—being the first.
“If I could give someone looking for affordable housing advice, it would be to go to Habitat. I wish I had done it sooner,” says the new home’s owner, Yessie Cordova. Before moving to this home, Cordova lived with her children in a dangerous neighborhood. “I couldn’t even get someone to install a fence I bought so that my kids could play outside, and I had to do it myself. Now I can sleep at night without being afraid, and my kids are loving having their own bedrooms,” she says. Cordova is already contributing to her community as a certified nursing assistant at Windsor Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Home, where she’s been for 10 years. As a caregiver, she understands the contribution that was made by those who worked on her home, and she used her vacation time to haul lumber, cheer on workers—even after dark—and bake treats for everyone.
A project like this has a lot of moving parts, with teams of experts doing the work on the house and hospitality volunteers making sure workers stay fed and motivated. “The weather was challenging, but everyone had a great attitude. If one person hadn’t shown up, the job wouldn’t have gotten done,” says York. “When everyone understands the cause, the work becomes even more rewarding.” The volunteer professionals worked for five days, from the early hours of the morning to 10 or 11 at night, and their dedication is obvious in the result of the house. “HBRACC and the companies involved in this project have a chance to push their power out into the community and contribute to something amazing—to take steps toward fixing a problem—with no direct benefit to themselves, and that’s exactly what they’re doing,” says project chair John MacPhee. “We can’t all work for Habitat,” he adds, “but doggone it, we can build a house.”