Building community

Thursday, February 18, 2010

MILFORD – Bob Hughes’ big dream – to own his own home – is about to come true.

Beginning in April, Hughes and volunteers with the Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity will start building his family a house here, a condex, a condo with only two units, on Tonella Road.

A Habitat house is not a give-away: Clients are considered partners and expected to put in 350 hours of “sweat equity.”

That won’t be a problem for Hughes, a jack-of-all trades who works for Handyman Matters in Brookline. His skills – in electrical work, plumbing and sheet-rock work – will come in handy in April.

On several Saturdays this winter, Hughes has been working with volunteers, clearing and burning brush at the site.

Hughes and his wife, Stephanie, have two children, and the family had a series of setbacks over the past few years that put their dream on hold.

Right before Christmas in 2007, the Hughes’ landlord in Hudson told them they had to be out of their two-family house in 30 days. So they put their things in storage and moved to Stephanie’s parents’ house in Milford, hoping to save money to buy a house. But Stephanie’s father got sick, and all the money they thought they’d be saving went to keep the household going.

After he made sure his in-laws would be OK without them, Hughes moved the family to the Anne-Marie House, a transitional housing facility in Hudson for families experiencing homelessness.

The family has been living in the Anne-Marie House for 13 months. During that time the couple took a first-time homebuyer’s course and made contact with Habitat for Humanity.

“We don’t want to be renting our entire lives,” said Hughes.

And that’s where Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity could help.

The local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International works in partnership with local people and businesses, “to assist people in need by building and renovating houses to create simple, decent houses to foster communities in which people can live and grow,” according to its mission statement.

The organization serves the communities throughout the Souhegan Valley and Nashua region, from Lyndeborough to Windham.

Eric Moore, Habitat’s building committee chairman, said it depends on all-volunteer labor – and they’re always looking for volunteers.

For the Milford project, said Moore, they need skilled workers, but there are also limited opportunities for people as young as 14 and 15, although young teenagers have to be accompanied by their parents.

There are also a wide variety of volunteer tasks for those who want to stay inside, including help with site selection or family selection.

To be selected, clients have to have low or moderate incomes, said Moore, “but enough of a job to pay back the mortgage” and pay the taxes.

The Hughes will live in half the condex and the other half will be sold.

“One of my concerns,” said Hughes, “was money, for say, a new roof in 20 years” or other maintenance expenses. He was relieved to learn that both homeowners will contribute to an escrow account for expenses.

The Milford project will take the better part of a year, said Moore, because the all-volunteer crew only works Saturdays.

The 20-year-old Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity has built a few houses in Nashua over the past four years and done a variety of smaller projects for social agencies and individuals, said Moore.

This is its first house in Milford, but last year it built a handicap ramp for the SHARE building here.

For more information, visit www.nashuahabitat.org.

Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100 ext.21 or at @kcleveland@cabinet.com.