Michele Batt wanted to meet new people, so she became a volunteer for Gloucester County Habitat for Humanity.
In the end, she found much more than a new circle of friends.
Batt found a house – and even helped build it. Now she’s helping build the rest of her neighborhood.
“It’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” said Batt, who moved into her Clayton home in May with her 11-year-old son, Brandon.
Batt is one of the first residents to occupy a 12-home subdivision being built by volunteers from Gloucester County Habitat for Humanity. Organizers say it is the largest Habitat project under construction in the Northeast.
Three homes, including Batt’s, now stand on what was once a trash-strewn patch of woods just south of Glassboro. Construction on the remaining nine houses, which will be sold at cost to low-income families, begins next month.
Each house is valued at about $120,000, said Al Connors, executive director for Gloucester County Habitat for Humanity. “That makes it affordable for people,” Connors said. “If they’re making $25,000 to $30,000 a year, it’s within their reach. ”
The 4.5-acre lot was given to Gloucester Habitat by the the Gloucester County Office of Economic Development, which has already contributed $375,000. The total cost of the project is $1.4 million.
A freshly paved cul-de-sac, named Len Blowe Court after a Gloucester Habitat volunteer who recently died, is already lined with sidewalks.
“It looks very weird now with it all cleared out and the roads and the flattened lots,” Batt said. “It was just trees before. ”
Batt started volunteering in 2004 for Habitat’s Gloucester affiliate. Because each Habitat affiliate receives no money from the parent organization, Batt’s first tasks included coordinating the group’s casino night and walkathon fund-raisers.
One day, fellow volunteers asked her a life-changing question.
“They asked me why I hadn’t applied for a house,” Batt said. She was was a perfect candidate. Because she was living with her parents in Clayton, she met all of Habitat’s requirements: She had no home or inadequate housing, her income was low, and she was willing to put 400 hours of sweat equity into Habitat projects.
Batt already had put hundreds of hours into Habitat. She wasn’t making much money selling medical equipment, but could afford to make payments on a modest mortgage.
Batt was approved.
“I was ecstatic,” she said. “I always joked I’d be out of my parents’ house before I turned 30. I cut it close. I just turned 30. ”
As her single-story home took shape, Batt did more than fund-raising. Every weekend, she was at the site. She learned basic construction skills from fellow volunteers.
“It was a crash course in homebuilding,” she said. “Every Saturday, I never knew what I’d be asked to do. It was tough. It was hard work. But it was awesome. ”
She cut the mocha-brown vinyl siding on her three-bedroom home.
“I was very good at it,” she said. “And I had never done anything like that before. ”
As construction progressed, Batt learned that several of the volunteers helping to build her house were also on the list to be her future neighbors.
“They’re wonderful people, friendly and open,” she said. “It’s nice knowing who they’re going to be. ”
Because Gloucester County Habitat is the holder of her mortgage, her no-interest house payments will go back into the Habitat pot to help build her neighbors’ houses, said Connors.
Batt said she planned to continue to volunteer for Gloucester County Habitat, both as a fund-raiser and as a builder.
“It’s still a part of me,” she said. “It was good for me. So I have to pass it on. “