home preservation
In February of 2024, a family member on the East Coast and contacted Habitat for Humanity - Ozaukee advocating for their parents in Wisconsin. Our team met with the residents to assess their needs and provided them an application for our home repair program. The residents are aging and needed better access to their home. They were willing to give up some space inside the garage for a ramp.
We did a full CAD design of a wheelchair ramp that provided us accurate material costs. We reviewed the plan, made some small adjustments, and settled on the final design.
Our home preservation program provides expertise and volunteers, while the residents pay for materials. Five volunteers built this new ramp; the residents provided a delicious lunch and were delighted with the outcome of their new ramp. This is a perfect example of a project we can do to keep our community happily and safely aging in their homes.
Learn more about this program on our Home Repairs page.
GRAFTON HOME BUILD DEDICATION
Habitat for Humanity - Ozaukee recently hosted the dedication of our 12th home, which is the second half of a duplex built in Grafton, Wisconsin.
Being able to dedicate this home to its deserving homeowners was an emotional experience, especially after all of their sweat equity hours, alongside our teams of volunteers.
This home was been made possible by the collaboration of numerous churches, community and civic groups businesses and many individual donors and volunteers. Without all of the financial support we have received, as well as the boundless hours of sacrificial dedication from our volunteers on the build site this home would not have been possible.
A Grafton Duplex
We recently completed our latest project in Grafton, a two-family duplex in February of 2022. This exciting project kicked off in the fall of 2019. As soon as all of our permits were approved our team was pouring the foundation and joyously held our wall raising in October.
Our determined volunteers made amazing progress over the last two years despite the many challenges they were faced with. Regardless of the challenges of a smaller crew due to COVID we are proud of all of their hard work!
170 North Park Street Build Completed in Just Seven Months
Volunteers spent around 3,000 hours in a compressed, seven-month period to complete a Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity home, a project that normally takes 12-15 months. Thrivent Financial has been a long-time supporter for Habitat; this is the first home in Ozaukee Country accomplished through the grant program.
Thrivent Financial takes a faith-based approach to helping families with financial advice to build promising futures. Members of the Thrivent community, along with homeowner Tammy's First Immanuel Lutheran Church congregation in Cedarburg, played an important role in home construction, representing more than 30 percent of the project's volunteer labor force.
In addition to a $45,000 home building grant, Thrivent also gave nearly $2,000 through member-directed Choice dollars, along with another $4,500 contributed by Thrivent member Action Teams. Jim Meyer, a Habitat board member and owner of Stone Creek Associates, a Thrivent company, led this incredible project with fellow board member and Thrivent coordinator Diana Eggold.
Construction manager and board member, Bob Meier, and his loyal building crew, as well as Howard Mulloy, Habitat's family selection chair and committee members Eileen Engl and Kathy Rowe, worked closely with homeowner Tammy throughout the process to guide her on key design decisions, material selections and financial paperwork.
This project offers a clear example of how Thrivent Financial is keeping the dream of homeownership alive through safe, affordable housing here in Ozaukee County!
True Grit: Grafton Home Brings Community Together
Neither rain nor snow, heat or gloom of night could keep construction manager Bob Meier and his dedicated crew of volunteers from their weekly Wednesday and Saturday building rounds. Despite a very wet spring and fall, not to mention a flood caused by a broken pipe, this hearty team "endeavored to persevere."
Hats off to Bob and his crew who showed true grit throughout the building process; we appreciate their unwavering support every step of the way.
Our new homeowner and community members celebrated the project's completion at a Nov. 20 dedication and open house event. Habitat broke ground on this property, located on Wisconsin Ave. in
Grafton, on Aug. 23, 2015. A future duplex is also planned for this site.
