Building homes together

WASHINGTON (CNS) - "A home provides basic security for parents and children. It gives them their own space, maybe for the first time in their lives," says Connie Highfill, director of housing at Community Family Life Services, a Lutheran-affiliated organization assisting the homeless in Washington, D.C.

All of the families housed by CFLS had been homeless before they moved into dwellings that the group purchased with donations and renovated with volunteer labor. These families, usually a young mother with two small children, were part of the estimated 2.3 million to 3.5 million Americans who spend time homeless at least once over the course of a year according to a study conducted in 2000 by the Urban Institute. Many Catholic parish social action and youth groups participate in housing-connected service programs. The benefit to recipients is obvious, the benefit to volunteers is more subtle. Kate Guyol, 21, from Immaculata Parish in St. Louis, Mo., traveled with her parish youth group to the small mountain town of Louisa, Ky., where they remodeled the parish rectory and several mobile homes. She went because she "always enjoys doing service. It was a great opportunity to help others while spending time with my friends." While there, Guyol learned "that there is a lot of stuff that I can do that I thought I couldn't. I learned that although some small task may seem unimportant to me, it could mean the world to someone else. I guess every little bit helps. There are a lot of things that we can do to help, but most of the time we ignore what is right in front of our faces." Julie Van Dusen, 24, who grew up outside Philadelphia, took a year off from college to be a part of AmeriCorps, a federal program that places 50,000 people in service programs each year. Van Dusen worked on housing issues at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. "Although I was there to help the families on the reservation, they really did a lot to help me," Van Dusen said. "While at AmeriCorps, I got used to doing things for other people, not for myself. I learned about working in a team, achieving something together. That helped me be less selfish at home. Now, for example, when our family is running late, instead of being angry at them for making me late, I try and focus on what I can do to help everyone move faster." Van Dusen said that on the reservation "there was a strong sense of family life. There may not have been two parents to every home, but there were grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all helping out." She said she learned from AmeriCorps that "poverty exists all over the country. I knew that before my service experience, but seeing it made it seem more real. There are men, women and children living in poverty. It's a fact." The Catholic Campaign for Human Development helps fund affordable housing efforts all over the United States. One group is the San Francisco Organizing Project, which has created 300 affordable housing units since 2001 and is supported by 27 church groups, including 13 Catholic parishes. "I am involved with SFOP because I can empathize with the plight of so many people who are living in cramped and overcrowded conditions in San Francisco," Alicia Esquivias, a parishioner at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Excelsior, Calif., told CCHD. She said, "As a person involved in the church, I know that these people have faith in God. But their prayers have gone unanswered for so many years that their faith suffers. They are in despair of the conditions they live in and the problems of their life." Esquivias added, "Each one of us can become an instrument for others to see that hope is possible. We need to consider ourselves a living stone, a part of a building community." For information on volunteer opportunities contact the Catholic Network of Volunteer Service by phone at 1-800-543-5046 or online at http://www.cnvs.org or the Catholic Campaign for Human Development at http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa. - - - Messing graduated from The Catholic University of America in Washington in 2003 and has been a volunteer with CFLS for three years.

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