I would like to clarify comments made about Habitat for Humanity and the United Way campaign in Thursday’s Daily.

The goals for the partnership of Story County Habitat for Humanity and Iowa State have been exceeded for that project. Habitat also continues to fund raise for our house-building projects in the county.

The mission of Story County Habitat for Humanity is to eliminate poverty housing in our county. The main way we seek to do that is to build simple, decent houses and sell them to low-income families at no profit with no-interest mortgages.

We are dependent on a variety of fund-raising efforts throughout the community to fund our building, especially because we do not accept government money for construction.

Habitat’s mission is very big, and we cannot accomplish it alone. That is why we are very pleased to have partnered with ISU’s Homecoming Community Service Committee in the last three years and hope to continue to in the future.

In 1999, Story County Habitat for Humanity was excited to have collaborated with the Homecoming Community Service Committee and the Emergency Residence Project (ERP) to build a transitional housing unit for homeless families that ERP owns and manages.

This fruitful partnership was called PATH: Partnership for Affordable Transitional Housing. You may remember it as the 1999 Homecoming blitz build.

PATH was fruitful because each partner contributed critical needs to the project.

ISU had hundreds and hundreds of willing volunteers that the Community Service Committee coordinated.

University faculty and staff provided important financial support to the project because Murray Blackwelder, Vice President for External Affairs, worked with the United Way committee to have Habitat Project listed in conjunction with ISU’s United Way campaign.

ERP also provided substantial financial support, including land for the apartment building, and their long experience as a nonprofit manager of transitional housing.

Story County Habitat served as construction project coordinator because our volunteers are experienced with volunteer-based construction.

Habitat did not provide any direct funding, but did coordinate the material and professional labor donations of over 70 local businesses, which saved over $110,000 for the project.

With strong partnerships such as these, we dare dream of someday putting ourselves out of business by completing our mission in Story County.

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Anjeanette Perkins

Executive Director

Story County Habitat for

Humanity