Affordable housing is a crisis not only in this country but throughout the world. Former President Jimmy Carter, in Los Angeles at the beginning of April, led thousands of volunteers to help build and repair over 100 Habitat for Humanity Homes in the Los Angeles area. Carter announced Los Angeles as the host city for Habitat for Humanity’s 2007 ‘Jimmy Carter Work Project.’ “The first step to solving the affordable housing crisis in Los Angeles,” Mr. Carter said, “is to shine a spotlight on the problem and implore all Americans to confront the issue…We hope our efforts and those of the thousands of Habitat volunteers who join us, will raise not only walls, but awareness of the power we each have to create significant and substantive changes.”
These changes on a national and global scale often begin at a very personal level. Habitat for Humanity was founded by Millard Fuller in 1976. Fuller, a successful attorney and entrepreneur, a self-made millionaire by the age of 29, suffered a personal crisis which forced him and his wife to give away all of their possessions and rededicate their lives to family, to following God’s path and to helping the poor help themselves.
The story of Nicolas Enriquez is one example of the fruit of Fuller’s efforts. While poverty had a hand in bringing Nicolas Enriquez to the United States and duty had a hand in keeping him here, Habitat for Humanity has given him and his family the opportunity to share in the American Dream of homeownership.
Nicolas Enriquez arrived in Los Angeles in 1982, six months shy of his eighteenth birthday, following in the footsteps of his brother. He left his village outside Acapulco, Mexico, and his family behind.
After studying English at Van Nuys High School for about six months, duty called: his family in Mexico needed financial help. He dropped out of school to clean tables at a restaurant where he worked his way up to waiter. In this position, he was able to practice English again.
Though working illegally, Nicolas always paid taxes, a move that would prove visionary on his part. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to aliens working in the U.S. illegally, but only if they were not lawbreakers and they paid their taxes. Soon after, Nicolas landed a job at JBL, a Harman Industries electronics company, where he is still employed today.
Despite hard work and modest living, the only shelter that Nicolas could afford for his wife Marlene and their twin daughters was a one-bedroom mobile home in Pacoima, southeast of San Fernando. As the twins got into middle school and faced its attendant volumes of homework, space constraints dictated that they do their studies outside because the house was too small. When the weather grew too cold for this solution, they were forced to remain uncomfortably crammed into the small quarters.
Public schools frequently serve as locations for community information for families. It was there, at the twins’ middle school, where Nicolas first heard about the Pierce Street Project (PSP) and Habitat for Humanity.
A Christian organization open to all faiths, Habitat for Humanity’s mandate is to eradicate substandard housing and make affordable shelter possible for all. Its guiding tenet: the working poor need “a hand up, not a hand out.” After building 125,000 houses in more than 3,000 communities in 83 nations and sheltering 1,000,000 worldwide, it has proven to be an effective principle.
The Pierce Street Project, also in Pacoima, is the first Habitat for Humanity project of its kind west of the Mississippi. Its mission is to build 62 homes on an L-shaped site. The first 20 homes are complete; another 17 are starting soon. When Nicolas heard about Pierce Street Project, he saw another opportunity.
The criteria for Habitat for Humanity residents are strict. The family must be legal, the breadwinners employed and current with the IRS. They must also put in a minimum 500 hours of sweat equity toward building their own home and those of others.
In exchange, the homeowner receives a zero down payment and a no-profit, zero-interest mortgage on the home. After a lengthy pre-qualification stage and interview the Enriquez’s were approved. “When we finished the paperwork on the house, we all went to church to thank God.” The partnership began.
The structure of Habitat for Humanity building sites is to assign prospective homeowners to a foreman, who tells them what needs to done on the homes. Nicolas’ English skills he worked so hard to obtain came in handy because the foreman did not speak Spanish and most of the families did not speak English. By bridging the language gap, he helped keep the construction on track. He and other families worked at whatever task was required: laying foundation, framing or painting. They labored in the hot summers and cold winters. It took two years to finish the first three houses and five to complete the first phase of 20 houses. Nicolas clocked 3,000 hours of sweat equity before moving in, more than anyone at the PSP.
The Enriquezes were the first family to occupy a home. Theirs is a three-bedroom, costing them $800 per month. According to Erin Rank, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles’ president and CEO, “Today the median income of rent households in Los Angeles is $34,456, while the median price for a home is $535,000.” Habitat for Humanity is working hard to change the equation for affordable housing.
“Everyday we face different problems and are looking for the best ways to solve them...sometimes [the situation] turns out the way you want it to, but even if it doesn’t, that’s life, and we say thanks to God anyway,” Nicolas says.
An added bonus for everyone is that Nicolas continues his leadership role in the community by providing translation and problem-solving services between Habitat for Humanity and the homeowners.
Millard Fuller has written seven books about his work with Habitat for Humanity, including a new book Building Materials for Life, where he shares his life lessons.
Nicolas Enriquez, 42 years old and an American citizen, now has a third daughter and plenty of room inside the house for them to do their homework.
www.habitat.org; www.habitatsfscv.org – Habitat for Humanity of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys;
www.habitatla.org – Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles
Marie Black is a freelance writer, actress and Anusara yoga teacher living in Los Angeles.
