“Gimme shelter!” Rolling Stone Mick Jagger once hollered, but so do many low-income, needy families, and the Golden Empire chapter of Habitat for Humanity hears.
And Golden Empire Habitat for Humanity has heeded the cry by building 7-8 houses in the Golden Empire area.
The organization is committed to building at least 12 houses a year, said Pat Rhoades, Golden Empire Habitat’s office manager and volunteer coordinator.
The international version of Habitat for Humanity was started as a means to provide “decent, affordable housing in all parts of the world,” according to Rhoades.
The Golden Empire chapter of Habitat for Humanity was formed on April 4, 1991.
The international organization itself was started in Americus, Ga., in 1976 by “a group of concerned Christians who worked together in the Civil Rights Movement,” Executive Director Dennis Wallace said.
This small group grew into the 18th-largest home building organization in the U.S. Habitat for Humanity, and then spread out into 100 different countries.
In the U.S., the organization addresses 1,700 municipalities. The organization welcomes the volunteer services of college students, engineers, electricians, carpenters and all manner of tradespeople, Rhoades said.
Somewhere in the world, “every 24 minutes, there is a home built, and that means that 60 people tonight will have homes to sleep in,” said Wallace.
Habitat for Humanity receives no federal funding and subsists on donations from individuals, churches and some corporations employing “matching funds,” said Pat Rhoades.
According to Rhoades, Union Bank is a frequent sponsor, having helped build four houses so far this year for the Golden Empire chapter of Habitat.
Some colleges sponsor home building for Habitat, and Bakersfield College volunteers tend to be plentiful, said Christina Aronhalt, Habitat’s program director.
In fact, in 2001, BC volunteers helped establish houses on East 18th and Gorill streets in Bakersfield, Aronhalt said. Golden Empire Habitat is looking into building houses in Arvin and Delano, and the organization is currently constructing a house on Center Street in Taft, Rhoades said.
According to Rhoades, most of the framework for Golden Empire Habitat’s houses are usually built on the Kern County Fairgrounds and are then moved to a particular location where they are finished.
This high-velocity house constructing is called “blitz” construction, said Rhoades.
A special occasion for Golden Empire Habitat is the Women’s Build event, in which women perform the main construction on a house. Men are not excluded from the event, but their work is peripheral as the women do the landscaping, floor covering, fencing, drywalling, insulating, wiring, plumbing and other duties, said Aronhalt.
One Women’s Build event yielded “the most well-built house raised in Bakersfield,” Wallace said.