Volunteers needed for wall-raising in Pacoima neighborhood project.

In celebration of World Habitat Day, volunteers are being
sought for an old-time wall-raising for 17 homes in Pacoima on Sunday.

Habitat for Humanity of San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valleys
is raising the walls on 17 homes within a 61-home complex on Carl
Street in Pacoima. The neighborhood project, the
first of its kind in the area, will provide low-income housing to homeowners
willing to invest “sweat equity” in their property, which will become their own
after 30 years.

Jack Shine, president and chairman of the board for the
local Habitat chapter said that the building community is giving families a “hand
up, not a hand out.”

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“We are engaged in the business even though we’re a
nonprofit, of providing homes to low-income families who earn around 50 percent
or less of the average income in the area, or around $32,000 a year for a
family of four,” he said.

”We have 17 very deserving families to whom we’re giving a
helping hand,” he continued. “For under $1,000 a month principal, we don’t
charge interest, taxes, insurance and homeowner dues, they can live in these
homes and after 30 years as a low-cost house, it’s theirs to sell or dispose of
as they wish.”

Shine said the best part was investing in the future.

“What we have then is a family whose children become part of
the middle class. They have a stake in the economy, some net worth and a piece
of the American pie.”

Shine said that the group was in escrow on property where 14
to 20 homes will be built in the Santa Clarita Valley.

“I was a builder for many years in this area, so my
proclivity is to do things in a production way,” he said.

The wall raising will be conducted between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Sunday at 12600 Carl Street
in Pacoima (near McClay Junior
High School). Anyone wishing to participate
should be at the site at 8 a.m. ready
for work. Assignments and work preparation will be done between 8 and 9:30, before a presentation and the actual
wall-raising by the volunteers who checked in by 9
a.m. To sign up, go to www.habitatsfscv.org.