RINA Gives Back - Habitat Build Day

Thursday, July 9th marked RINA’s annual community service day. Approximately 60 members of the RINA staff from every department donated a day of work to assist Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley with various projects for Martinez’s Muir Ridge development of homes. Our tasks included door installation, painting, and waterproofing, and roofing projects, among others. 

The site for this particular project for Habitat for Humanity is on Heron Lane in Martinez’s Muir Ridge area. The site is host to 20 new homes that was formerly that of a stalled project. The Habitat Homes will include three and four bedroom detached single family homes that will be available to hardworking yet low income families. This project broke ground on September 6th, 2014 and is slated for completion in 2016. 

Habitat for Humanity offers an opportunity to achieve the American dream of home ownership through its unique, global program to a greater range of people than are normally afforded the opportunity. Habitat homes are not simply given to people in need. Recipients of Habitat for Humanity homes qualify for the homes in three major areas: need for shelter, willingness to become partners in the program, and ability to repay the home loan. The benefits of qualifying to receive a Habitat home include the price of the home (being at cost), and the nonprofit mortgage held by Habitat. One of the most notable parts of the Habitat home ownership process is the “Sweat Equity”, in which homeowners are required to work for a specified number of hours on the home that is to become theirs, typically a total of over 150 hours of manual labor on the home. Not only does this demonstrate the homeowners’ willingness to partner with the Habitat organization, but also strengthens the bond between homeowner and their future property.

If you are interested in becoming involved with Habitat Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley, please visit their website at www.habitatebsv.org