THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 8, 1996 TAG: 9609080075
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Paul South
LENGTH: 63 lines
There's something most of us have the luxury to take for granted, until the winds blow hard and the rains fall cold.
And for one bleak moment, we ponder what it would be like if we lost it, a soul-ripping reality many of our neighbors to the south know too well this week.
A place of our own.
But sadly, here in the land of plenty, there are those among us who have never known what it's like to have a home.
Patty Johnson, a Kill Devil Hills nurse practitioner, has stared deeply into the faces of those folks, as a midwife in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.
``I thought I was in a different country,'' Johnson says. ``The walls were just sheets of corrugated metal. There were dirt floors. No electricity. No indoor plumbing. I had never seen anything like it.''
The Delta has no monopoly on poverty. There are children in the Cabrini-Green housing projects of Chicago who crawl into bed with empty stomachs. In Washington, D.C., winter, a rock's throw from the White House, youngsters cuddle with their mothers over grates to feel the warm air from below. And in northeastern North Carolina there are families that live a Third World existence.
``I know there are,'' Johnson said. ``I think there are people in Dare County who live like those people in Mississippi. We just don't see it because we travel on different roads.''
But Johnson, 45, and a number of other local volunteers, are doing something to bridge those different paths - working with Habitat for Humanity.
Founded in 1976 in Americus, Ga., by Linda and Millard Fuller, Habitat for Humanity is an ecumenical Christian organization that hopes to eliminate substandard housing and provide a means of home ownership for the working poor.
Habitat rehabilitates homes with the help of the homeowners, who are able to buy the houses at cost through no-interest mortgages. They must also invest what Habitat calls ``sweat equity'' - joining volunteers in building a new home.
``A lot of people have a misconception that Habitat is a giveaway program, but it's not,'' local contractor Skip Saunders said a couple of years ago in talking about the program. ``These are working people. . . . Good, hard-working, honest folks who can't qualify for any program, being government or private sector. All those people need is a hand up. Once they get there, they have to pay off their mortgage like everyone else, and in turn, they have to help others.''
The local Habitat for Humanity chapter has already finished one home, and is working on two more, on adjoining lots in Manteo. For Johnson, who succeeded Saunders as the local chapter president, Habitat for Humanity does more than build houses. It builds communities.
``It's a rewarding thing when you see people who are black, white, rich and poor, professional and blue-collar coming together to help each other,'' Johnson said. ``It gives us a chance to build relationships.''
But for Rosa Carver, a 35-year-old single mom who moved into her Habitat house last summer, the Habitat is more than four walls, more than a place to call home.
``There were times when I felt like I just couldn't keep going,'' Carver said. ``I wondered where God was. But now I know that there are people who love me and that God loves me, too.'' by CNB