Volunteers in LaGrange, Ga., worked in both heavy rain and hot sun during the Jimmy Carter Work Project.

A Leap of Faith that Worked
by Rebekah Daniel

Jamie Bradfield, president of the board of directors for Troup/Chambers County Habitat for Humanity, has a hit list. His "victims"? Substandard housing units.

It isn't hard for him to find targets in LaGrange, Ga., his hometown and one of the sites for this year's Jimmy Carter Work Project. In fact, his targets are all too common--unfortunately.

Despite its prevalence--nearly one in four housing units in LaGrange is inadequate--substandard housing flew beneath the radar of public attention until Bradfield and two other hometown sons decided to do something about it. Concern for their community emboldened Bradfield, Ricky Wolfe and Walter Hendrix to take action.

	Sharon Hunt and Robin O’Neill were among hundreds of volunteers on site in LaGrange, Ga.

In 1999, when Bradfield joined the affiliate board of directors, his first task was not building houses; it was putting out fires. With a few over-committed family nurturers and a "burned-out" board of directors, almost all the affiliate's homeowners were behind in their payments, and some were in bankruptcy, Bradfield says. It took a year and a half to restore order and bring the board to a place where it could think about how to accomplish its long-range goal of building 30 to 40 houses a year.

In the midst of the affiliate's board transformation, another change of perspective was taking place in

one of the board members. Wolfe, who had grown up in LaGrange, but worked elsewhere, had returned to his hometown. He envisioned a movement that not only provided decent housing, but also helped restore and rebuild the community as a whole. As he puts it, he wanted to "re-neighbor the neighborhoods." The 21st Century Challenge, a Habitat for Humanity International program in which affiliates work with community agencies to eliminate poverty housing by an established date, fit into his vision perfectly.

Attracted by the new strength in the board, Habitat for Humanity International extended an invitation to the affiliate to participate in the 2003 Jimmy Carter Work Project.

"We didn't have staff. We didn't have an executive director. We didn't even have a building," Bradfield says. "We were meeting in the library of my church."

In a bold move, the board decided to accept the challenge and committed to building five houses. Wolfe contacted Hendrix, who was then the executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Ocala (Fla.), and wanted to return to LaGrange. Wolfe asked him to take on the 21st Century Challenge as executive director. Hendrix accepted. Soon, staff members joined the team, and the affiliate accepted a donation of land to build on--a ball field where Hendrix played football in high school.

Then the LaGrange affiliate decided to be even bolder, increasing the JCWP house commitment from five to 22. The affiliate even secured warehouse space to pre-build wall panels.

When the week of the JCWP arrived, the stage was set for transformation to continue. Homeowners Jarome and Stephanie Camp were just one example. They saw their dream of putting down roots in a clean home become reality as their house sprouted from the muddy earth. They had struggled to find housing close to the textile mill where Jarome works: "Some of the houses we looked at to rent looked like termites holding hands," Jarome says. What they could afford was hardly adequate. Rainwater ran down the walls in their old rental house, their feet stuck to the mildew on the floor, and since April they had been living with their two children in a hotel room because the roof fell in over the bathroom.

Now, Jarome and Stephanie's sweat equity and a $242 monthly mortgage payment have purchased not only a new Habitat house, but also a new way of life. Their children picked the decorating themes for their bedrooms--Barbie™ for Bethany, Buzz Lightyear™ for Christopher--and Jarome has already issued a decree: no shoes in the house, and no drinking anything in the living room.
"We wouldn't know where we'd go right now if we weren't going into this house," Stephanie says. "There's not many people that'll give you a chance nowadays."

(continued)