Fleet Week sea service members help build Jamaica home
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
As part of Fleet Week New
York 2019, over a dozen U.S.
Marines, U.S. Navy Sailors
and U.S. Coast Guardsman
on Thursday partnered with
Habitat for Humanity New
York City to build a home
for a low-income first-time
homebuyer in Jamaica.
Prepared to take on the
day’s task at hand equipped
with a hardhat and tools,
the service men and women
trickled into the construction
site — located at 101-64 132
St. in Richmond Hill — of
a recently demolished and
former dilapidated home
lifting, cutting, and measuring
to build the initial framework
of a new affordable home.
This is the sixth year in a
row that sea service members
participating in Fleet Week
have partnered with Habitat
NYC, a non-profit organization
serving more than 700
families in the five boroughs
through home construction
and preservation.
“The Fleet Week Volunteer
days are some of our most
productive days. We love
having the Navy, Marines,
and Coast Guards come out
and join us,” said Matthew
Dunbar, vice president of
External Affairs for Habitat
for Humanity NYC. “The sea
service members are amazing
volunteers. They get so much
done. They make our mission
their mission this week and
we’re thrilled to have them
here this week.”
Homeownership is an
important part of the housing
continuum because it provides
working families an avenue for
stability and equity, while also
serving as a bulwark against
gentrification, according to
Habitat NYC. In New York City,
where the homeownership rate
is half of the national average,
there has been a startling drop
in the number of homeowners,
resulting in more than 124,000
New Yorkers, most of whom are
from minority communities,
into joining the increasingly
unaffordable rental market.
The single-family home is
one of 23 homes that Habitat
NYC acquired through a
partnership with the New
York City Housing Authority,
Members of the U.S. Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, partnered with Habitat for Humanity NYC to
construct a single-family home in Jamaica. Photo by Carlotta Mohamed/QNS
according to Dunbar.
“We did 13 homes in our
first phase, and there are 20
in southeast Queens and three
in Brooklyn in our second
phase,” said Dunbar. “All of
these houses were vacant and
dilapidated between 10, 15 to 20
years. They were blights in the
neighborhood and community,
so we took control and bought
each property for $1.”
At least 20 of the homes
were gut-rehabilitated, Dunbar
said, but since the current
home needed to be town down,
the sea service members will
participate in building a brand
new home to be purchased by a
Habitat family in the fall.
The service members will
be responsible for establishing
the initial framing of interior
and exterior walls, and
trussing of the roof. For some,
it’s their first time working
with the organization,
while other members have
participated in the past
helping to build homes in
other cities.
“This is amazing. It’s
kind of near and dear to my
heart. I grew up in a rural
area in Los Angeles, a lowincome
family that’s kind of
my environment, so giving
back any chance I get is
awesome,” said U.S. Navy
Sailor Archangel Smiley.
Read more at QNS.com.
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