To most, the concept of homelessness is based solely on statistics and heartfelt television advertisements. However, to the UNCW students working with Habitat for Humanity, homelessness is a serious issue that society needs to work towards solving.
This issue is especially disconcerting considering around 600,000 people in America are homeless at any given moment, according to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2012.
UNCW’s Habitat for Humanity volunteers have plans to help alleviate some of this issue, however, funds for these endeavors are needed. One job in particular, an annual trip to Florida to build houses, needs the help of UNCW students and community members for donations.
“We do [the trip] every spring break,” said UNCW’s Habitat for Humanity Fundraising Chair Kyndra Lawson.
Lawson explains that during the trip the students work on building one specific house that is in one of the many cities they have listed. The students go and spend their whole Spring Break, every day from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m., working on this one house. The house either goes to back to Habitat for Humanity for use or for an actual person who will live there.
“Volunteering is really great because you get to meet the people you are building those houses for and see the excitement on their face as they realize that this is their house that they are working on,” said Lawson. “So it just makes you feel good knowing that you are helping someone attain a necessity that otherwise would not be available to them.”
UNCW Habitat for Humanity volunteers plan to do bake sales and car washes to make money, according to Lawson.Â
“We also have a GoFundMe account,” said Lawson, “and are fundraising at Jason’s Deli on the 18th of February from 5 in the afternoon until 10 at night.”
With these donations, these UNCW student volunteers can make the trip to Florida or to any other listed city in need of some helpful hands.
“We need to make around 2,000 or at least 1,500 dollars,” said Lawson. “Right now we have around 100 dollars.”
Donating to this cause is great, Lawson thinks, because Habitat for Humanity builds houses for people who do not have the money to buy their own houses. These people will put in their own time helping the student volunteers build and they will only have to pay a small amount of money each month. They do not have to pay for the land or any of the materials that goes into building the house, making owning a house easier for those who do not have to means to otherwise.