Assuming credit doesn’t affect teens is a mistake. In the US, 11% of adolescents from 12 – 19 have their own credit cards. The average 18 – 24 year-old uses 30% of annual income to repay debt. Of all people who filed for bankruptcy in 2011, 19% were college-aged. With the dearth of financial education resources for teens, Habitat has mobilized for the cause.

Our three part series provides students with insights into the financial world before they enter it. The series will be offered to students in the month of April. After months of intensive planning, we created a curriculum based on the questions students had about credit and money management. I had an open discussion with College Track students during the process. They had many of the same questions that adult participants have in Homebuyer Readiness courses – questions that aren’t addressed in school.

The first class in the series will address students’ concept of credit, the importance of credit and how to establish and maintain credit. The second class focuses on creating sustainable budgets, helping students contextualize the value of money. The second class also provides insight on goal creation, savings and compound interest. The final class is an open dialog about ‘life after high school’, addressing different career paths and experiences after graduation. The youth program came out of Habitat Greater SF’s push to use the resources at hand to help the broader community.

On our fifth and final day in Hiep Duc we began by seeing the houses our team built last year.  The bus turned round a bend and we saw a traditional Vietnamese facade, doors to the living room wide open to the road.  A small group of people sat waiting for us, two older women, two girls in school uniforms and one teenager.  The homeowner smiled and began hugging us as we poured out of the bus.  She was delighted to see the familiar faces from last year.  The house was simple, but beautiful.  I was elated seeing the tiled floor, plastered walls and shingled roof that would soon grace the house we had worked on and house the family we had worked beside.  We drank tea and asked questions of the homeowners.  Soon we were whisked away for lunch, and those from the 2011 trip left teary-eyed the home they had helped build. 

Back to our two job sites.  At ours the family had leveled some dirt and hoisted a tarp over two tables with 13 chairs.  Complete table settings were laid out, meaning a bowl and two chopsticks for everyone.  We sat down and a bounty of food was placed in front of us.  The family had prepared this meal in gratitude, and it couldn’t have been cheap.  We ate morning glories, shrimp, sticky rice with chicken, jackfruit salad, chicken-rice soup, and all of it was amazing.  The husband brought out two cloudy Aquafina bottles: Rice wine.  His wife stood up and gave a tearful toast.  She had never tried rice wine before, but she would drink with us.  We accepted.  The hour passed quickly.  She walked us to the bus, past the neighboring rice paddies, past the water buffalo rolling in mud, past the ubiquitous stray puppies. 

We drove the two hours to Hoi An with the Habitat Vietnam staff that had led us while there.  They were amazing organizers and thoughtful project managers.  We were sorry to say goodbye.  The bus left us at the Hoi An Pacific Hotel.  The cool rush of A/C and warm glow of non-flourescent light was shocking.  Everything in the hotel had a glitzy, western feel, with all the mundane luxuries I’ve been accustomed to all my life.  The next few days were certainly comfortable, but I couldn’t help but miss Hiep Duc.

Our first day on the site was preceded by a meeting with a local party official: Nguyen Van Tinh, Vice Chairman of Hiep Duc District. As we sat around a large cherry wood table he both welcomed us and thanked us. He told us that of the 10,000 households in Hiep Duc, 4,000 are unemployed. It is the poorest district in this province, Quang Nam. He went on to say, “I’m sorry about your accommodations. They’re the best we have to offer and they’re not good.”  We were humbled. With hot water and flushing toilets, we felt pampered. This politician apologized because we have so much more at home.

We then took a bus to the build site. The house is surrounded by rice paddies and mountains. Our jobs this week include brick laying, roofing, shoveling and tamping. Bamboo scaffold surrounds the house, currently raw brick walls without a roof. Before we got here, the house had been worked on for 20 days. After we leave it will take 15 days to finish. Over 2 days we’ve managed to fill and grade the inside of the house.

The end of today was marked by a volleyball game between us and a local girls team. People riding by began stopping. Soon 50 people were sitting on the sidelines watching. Once school let out the kids joined the fun. Points weren’t kept, but we’re pretty sure we won. Stay tuned for more build progress.

The 20 of us just landed in Hong Kong – taking advantage of the free internet (way to go, Hong Kong international ariport!).  We’ve got a team of Habitat staff, board members, Young Leader’s Circle members and regular volunteers all coming together to build.  This marks the second year Habitat Greater SF has sent a team to our sister affiliate in Vietnam.  Check out last year’s blog posts about Global Village Vietnam to get a better idea of what’s ahead.

As we flew into Hong Kong, the clouds were so thick  I could barely see the wings.  Then, a mere 30 seconds before we landed, I saw water and then a runway.  Felt just like SFO.  Inside the airport fresh juice costs $28 – what’s the exchange rate here? We’re headed to Saigon in two hours, and then up towards central Vietnam where we’ll be building.  With 80% humidity we’ve got a sweaty week ahead of us with fresh soup for breakfast every day.  Stay tuned for more updates and check out our Facebook for photos.

If a person can’t swing a hammer or lift a 2×4, how can he/she help Habitat For Humanity? That’s a question I asked myself time and time again. Until, one day, I learned there are plenty of ways to give my time without hurting my back or aggravating my shoulder.

The answer turned out to be the Family Selection Committee. That’s the process Habitat for Humanity uses to screen families for their home ownership program. At first, I thought “what a daunting process for families to commit to.” That’s a natural response for someone who doesn’t know the process or the families. Nonetheless, I dove in to learn what I needed to know to “select families.”

There are rules and regulations a person needs to know before walking families through the homeownership process. So, every member of the Family Selection Committee attends formal trainings. My first meeting was a training on Fair Housing. I walked in to a room full of people ready to hear exactly how Fair Housing works. It was comforting to see so many people (maybe 50) ready to commit just like I was. After an icebreaker, we hit the PowerPoint presentation to learn the ins and outs of our nation’s housing rules. It turns out, there are a lot of them. I was starting to think maybe I could just strengthen my back and do some exercises to improve my shoulder. You know, so I could lift a hammer and place a 2×4. Alas, that was not to be.

Four more trainings followed on topics from the legal aspects of homeownership to Habitat’s criteria for homeowner selection. Then just 2 more orientation meetings and I was ready to face the families.

I still remember the first family orientation day. I wasn’t sure what to expect. After all I’d learned about what is expected of would-be Habitat families, I had no idea how the day would go. Remember, from what I’d learned, the process seemed really daunting.

I quickly learned the families don’t seem to mind the daunting nature of the process. In fact, they’re excited about it. It’s a lot of work to gather necessary documents; work history, tax information, letters from a landlord, citizenship documentation. The list goes on and on. But, that’s ok. The Family Selection Committee is there to make that process a little easier, less daunting.

Stay tuned next week for another exciting episode of the Family Selection Committee, “Jonah and Stacy M and Their Giant Stack of Papers”!

Inspiring young Bay Area business leaders will trade in their shirts and ties for hardhats and hammers on Thursday, February 16 at our very own 7555 Mission Street. The 40 Under 40 list includes the most influential young leaders in the Bay Area. The winners include the likes of Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, Alison Pincus, co-founder of One Kings Lane, and Tony Award-nominated producer Lorenzo Thione. The inaugural class of 40 Under 40 was recently announced by the San Francisco Business Times.

The 40 Under 40 awards event will be held at the Levi Plaza Atrium on March 7th. Partial proceeds from this event will be donated to Habitat Greater San Francisco. Email Jacquie Bischoff at jbischoff@bizjournals.com for ticket information.

The Habitat for Humanity Build is sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). In addition to providing the solar panels for the PG&E Solar Habitat program, PG&E has contributed more than $200,000 to bring this project to life.

Come to think of it I’ve never forgotten my 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 27th Habitat family.  I have been working for Habitat for Humanity for almost four years now and I carry each family with me when I come to work.  Working for Habitat has been an incredible blessing for my life.  Habitat has given me purpose.  Habitat is what drives me.

In 2008 I took my first position with Habitat for Humanity in Little Rock Arkansas, coordinating family services and partner family support. My Habitat affiliate built 8 homes a year and it was my job to walk our families through the program. From the moment they applied to the moment they were handed their keys, these families would look to me. It was a daunting task but a task I looked forward too. I met my first family on the worksite of their home. We were spreading dirt and laying sod on an unseasonably chilly October morning. My work foreman introduced me to Mrs. S and her beautiful daughter, R. I introduced myself and went about the business of getting the volunteers started. Throughout the day I would have small conversations with Mrs. S. I learned that she and her husband, who was off working one of his three jobs, were incredibly antsy to get into their home. They had been waiting for this opportunity since the day they learned they were going to have a baby. Homeownership was the dream. They started saving to get out of the tiny rental apartment they were living in and started to get excited about their growing child. When their daughter R was born everything derailed. R was born with a congenital heart defect. She had already had three surgeries to repair the hole in her heart by the time she was one. Medical bills were piling up and Mrs. S had quit her job to take care of R full time. They went into debt and the dream of a home for their growing family disappeared. Then one day they found Habitat. Mrs. S calls it her miracle. They applied and after months of debt counseling and hard financial work, the family was approved. This house was more than just a place to live. This Habitat home was a safe place for the family to raise their daughter without concern for her health. With the affordable mortgage payment, Mrs. S could afford to go back to school to become a neonatal nurse. Mr. S could relax a little. This house was everything to this family. I had never seen anything like it before. I was hooked.  

Not all my experiences with Habitat have been good, but ultimately I’m a better person for experiencing them. One of my first home visits was one of these experiences. I knew poverty existed. I wasn’t completely naïve. What I didn’t realize was legitimate third world poverty existed within miles of my own home.  

In order to access a family’s need, a committee must visit a family in their home and make an assessment. Walking into the door of a stranger’s home is always a little unnerving but the experience is especially unsettling when there is no door. Plywood sheeting is not a door. Other than objects of large mass, a plywood door keeps out nothing. Not water, rodents or pests. We weren’t even inside yet and I wanted to scoop out the family and take them home with me. Once inside what I very loosely refer to as a house, we discovered 6 people living in three rooms. Our applicant family was a mom and two school age children who all shared a bedroom which was large enough for a queen size bed, a dresser, and a desk. The kids would take turns at night doing their homework. Mom was doing her best. She worked a full time job by day and went to school at night. Mom kept her family’s room spotless which is difficult to do when your roof is leaking. Once a week she would send the kids outside and spray the walls down with bleach to kill the mold spores. The family stayed in one room because it was the only room worth living in. The shared bathroom had a floor so rotted that plywood covered holes and in the corner you could see through to the crawl space below. If it rained there was a chance that the wiring would get wet and there would be no power for a few days. Inside the shared living space pests ran free. While we sat talking at the kitchen table I could see ants crawling up the wall. Mom was clearly embarrassed but she simply couldn’t afford anything else. They lived here because she could walk to work and school. She didn’t have a car and her kids took the bus to school. She was saving for a better life but just didn’t seem to be able to get ahead. Mom cried when I told her that her family had been accepted into the Habitat program. I never told her that I left their house and sat in my car and cried. I cried because I realized my problems were nothing in comparison, but also because I knew I could do something to help. Habitat could be there to help this family step up to a better life.  

I work for Habitat for Humanity because the Habitat model works, plain and simple. Habitat provides simple, decent, affordable housing to low income persons in need. Habitat isn’t about charity. No one is given their house. Homeowners pay a mortgage and literally put their labor into the construction of their home. The two families I mentioned are just a small sample of the stories I have to share. These families were just the beginning of my Habitat experience and now four years later I can proudly say the families I meet today are just as memorable and life changing as my first families. 　There are still people out there who need help and Habitat is still here to give them a hand up, not a hand out. I am honored to be a part of the Habitat mission and I look forward to many years and hundreds more families.

I joined Habitat Greater SF last August to further develop and facilitate the Homebuyer Readiness Program.  I grew up in San Jose.  I hold a B.A in both Economics and Spanish from SF State.  Prior to joining the Habitat team, I worked as a Certified Credit & Housing Counselor with Consumer Credit Counseling Service of San Francisco.  During my time there, I assisted clients to develop and maintain sustainable budgets, devise debt reduction strategies and plan for long term goals such as successful homeownership.  Through my experience I bring a background of consumer rights, credit and financial literacy expertise and knowledge surrounding the mortgage loan process and first time homebuyer options.

What is a Credit Report?

There are three main credit bureaus which compile information about our responsibility with borrowed money:  Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.  Creditors, lenders and collection agencies pay credit bureaus to maintain a record of your credit history and payment patterns.  This record is called a ‘credit report.’ A credit report lists your personal contact information, public record history (if applicable), list of trade lines (credit cards, lines of credit and loans) and a list of your credit inquiries (which occur any time you apply for credit or a loan).  From this information, the credit bureaus assess how much risk you represent as a borrower.  Your level of risk is indicated by your credit score.  Credit scores range from 300-850.  The higher your credit score, the lower the risk you present to creditors and lenders and the easier it will be for you to obtain additional credit in the future.

Dina's family at their home dedication

Dina Abarca’s living situation has changed dramatically from this time last year, but her traditions remain the same. “Before we were thankful for what we had. We were all eating in one room.” This included Dina, her two children and the 10 other people living in the four bedroom house in Menlo Park. There wasn’t much extra room, but they found the space for a new tradition. Every holiday season Dina and her kids make a large batch of turkey soup and give it to the homeless and hungry.

The inspiration came from a church friend a few years ago who shared a Guatemalan soup recipe. Dina’s mother was always left with heaping piles of turkey after Thanksgiving, a waste that bothered Dina. Finally there was a way to use it. “I would love to have a beautiful tradition with the stuffing and the big turkey,” Dina admits, “but the kids don’t want it. We don’t do that. We have our own tradition where we cook something and give it to someone else.”

A tradition of giving reenforces the values that she is teaching her kids. “I’m trying to teach the kids you don’t have just one day of the year to show people what you should show them every day of the year – thankfulness.” Before they moved, the family lived in conditions that made gratitude difficult to focus on. The family slept in one room, with a single table in the house for studying and eating. With the noise of 10 people in one house, it was often hard for the kids to concentrate leading her son to get C’s and D’s at school. At night it was nearly impossible to sleep a full 8 hours.

When the family moved into their Habitat home, Dina noticed a real difference in everyone. “My kids are getting better grades. My son went from C’s to A’s. I find myself yelling less and less. I asked my kids, ‘Why do you have better grades?’ The told me, ‘We have more peace. We’re more happy.’ Every time we have dinner at the table we are thankful for the house, thankful for what we have.” The family is thriving in their new home, but not everything has changed.

During this chilly holiday season, Dina and her kids will be out and about giving food to the homeless, just like any year. “Don’t just sit there and expect things to happen for you. You have to go out there and give without expecting anything and have a full heart. When you’re least expecting it, something good will happen for you. If we all give just a little, things happen.”

Carmela and her two daughters in front of their new house.

Carmela and her two daughters will enjoy an amazing present this Christmas: A big box wrapped in pale yellow paint, trimmed in white with a bow on top of composite shingle roofing. But like most pretty packages that we wait in lines for, work hard to afford and desire the most, Carmela knows that what’s inside the box is what really matters.

For Carmela, a goal-oriented single mother, what really matters after purchasing her Habitat for Humanity home in San Mateo is a home without restrictions. A home where her two daughters can paint their own rooms any color they choose. A home with a back and front yard where her kids can run, play and ride bikes. Most importantly, a home that allows her to live close to her cherished family and local church.

“Even my church family helped me,” Carmela says while reflecting on her “sweat equity” hours every family agrees to complete before purchasing a Habitat home. “My pastor did a blessing of the keys.”

Carmela worked towards her new home as part of Habitat Greater SF’s affordable homeownership program for local working families. After completing 500 hours of “sweat equity” on the construction site and attending a series of homebuyer readiness workshops, the family purchased the home with an affordable, zero-interest mortgage and no down payment.

The same family and local community that helped her build her new home will join her to celebrate her first Christmas dinner, choose the perfect Christmas tree, and hang their new Christmas lights around the awning. Even though those ornaments and delicious foods symbolize a great holiday season, it’s being together with her loved ones and hearing excitement from her daughters that makes Carmela bright with happiness.

“Mommy, when are we going to get our lights?” she hears her daughters asking. Before her new ownership they never had room for decorations. Carmela and her family will enjoy many new family traditions in their new Habitat home, like the joy of owning their new Cockapoo puppy named Grace and a blown up Santa on their front lawn.

However, they won’t leave behind all their traditions. “Even though they have separate rooms they still tend to sleep together,” she says. Carmela can sleep easy this holiday season knowing her girls are wrapped securely in their new home.