Et cetera : NCCC’s Cedar 7 Makes Houses into Homes in Michigan

Corps Members Alex Bissell and Aderonke Coker remove windows from a burned out house.

By: Alex Bissell

AmeriCorps NCCC team Cedar 7’s new project is in Flint, Mich., serving Genesee County Habitat for Humanity (GCHFH).

After arriving in the city on May 3, the team set to work rehabilitating homes. This involves tasks like demolition, hanging drywall, painting, trim work, and landscaping. Most notably, one of the target houses is to be Habitat for Humanity’s first “live and work” space in the United States, where entrepreneur homeowners can both live and run a business. In addition to this work, the team is also fixing a dock and clearing the Flint River trail.

“There is immediate gratification in the work we are doing,” says Corps Member Masuzyo Mhango from Newton, Mass. “First we get to see the results, and then we see the homeowners get excited about their new home.”

As their project application states, the worldwide Habitat for Humanity organization is “dedicated to eliminating poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to making decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.” It also affirms that every 24 minutes, a Habitat for Humanity home is built. GCHFH alone has renovated or constructed 86 houses since it was founded in 1990.