Chattanooga Association of Realtors (CAR) broke ground Thursday for their second Habitat house in the Shepherd Park community.
Providing homes for people “is what Realtors are all about,” said CAR President Dan Griess at the groundbreaking, and Realtors are glad to be able “to give back to the community” by providing homes through Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga.
The owner of the new home to be built by the Realtors is Natasha Smith and her three daughters, Kayla, 12, a student at Chattanooga Middle School, Kiara, 11, and Kori, 10, both students at Battle Academy.
Ms. Smith said the girls who were in school when the ceremony was being held “are very excited” about the new home and Ms. Smith obviously was excited about getting a new home. The home being built by the Realtors will be a three-bedroom home. Ms. Smith works at Blue Cross-Blue Shield.
Jan Varnell, executive director of Habitat, said of the Realtors, “It is wonderful what they have done,” raising the funds for the house and providing the labor to build the house.
Mr. Griess said last year when the Realtors launched the drive to raise $45,000 to build one house, they raised over $100,000 at the fund-raising luncheon, enough for two Habitat houses and the start for a third. He said the Realtors will have a fund drive later this year to raise money to build another house next year.
Just as it was last year, the theme for this year’s project is to have the family "Home for the Holidays.”
Habitat is a non-profit, ecumenical, Christian housing ministry serving all who need simple, decent and affordable housing. It’s mission is to build simple and affordable housing for low-income families who otherwise would be unable to own such homes.
Chattanooga Habitat has helped more than 170 families have the opportunity to own their own homes since its founding in 1986 and works to build at least 12 additional homes each year for deserving low-income families.
Part of the crowd of Realtors and Habitat representatives gathered for the ground breaking of a new Habitat house to be built by Realtors. Click on all our photos to enlarge.
- Photo2 by Irby Park