Jim williams

Habitat for Humanity is organizing an Inauguration Bill in 2024 to commemorate Father Dow's inauguration. Over 750 Notre Dame employees are participating in this event to make a difference in the local community. Volunteers are enthusiastic about the project and understand the importance of affordable housing. Housing affordability is becoming a pressing issue, especially for millennials, who are frustrated and angry about the lack of opportunities for homeownership. Habitat for Humanity encourages people to attend information meetings and not disqualify themselves from applying for a home. The organization is proud to collaborate with Notre Dame and believes that their missions align well. The partnership between Notre Dame and Habitat for Humanity benefits the local community and contributes to neighborhood revitalization efforts. Jim Williams, President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity at St. Joseph County. We are looking at one of the most awesome sites for doing Inauguration Bill 2024 commemorating the inauguration of Father Dow and getting over 750 Notre Dame employees involved with making a difference in the local community. Okay, I don't want to jinx ourselves, but it's going really well so far and from the feedback that we're getting from the volunteers, they're excited. They're having a good time and feeling like this is definitely worth it. What does it feel like to be here and to see them all coming together? Well, this is very rewarding. I've been at Habitat for 16 years and it never gets old to see volunteers excited, not only to make a difference in the community, but to really start to understand housing affordability issues and it seems like that issue of housing really is more top of mind for people than ever before. People, I mean, it's like a visceral thing. They understand not only what home ownership means to a family, but also how expensive rents have gotten and how expensive houses have gotten. People have been out in the market trying to buy a starter home. They can't find anything that's any quality for less than $250,000, $300,000 and it's discouraging for them. I'm also realizing that millennials, people in that age bracket, they're now moving from frustration to actually just anger, like when are they ever going to have an opportunity to become homeowners? And so, it's an issue that's real. People get it and to be able to make a difference and to help provide a solution, it's a meaningful thing for them. What would be a first step to engage all of our peers for possibly becoming homeowners? I'm glad you asked that because I bet you there's a lot of people that talk themselves out of applying because they think I would never qualify. So, the first thing is just come on out to an information meeting. You can find the information on our website at hfhsjc.org. Find out when our next information meeting is and at least hear about the program. Don't talk yourself out of it. These are families that are going to be moving into houses this year. They never thought they would qualify for a Habitat house and we actually have three or four Notre Dame employees that are moving into Habitat houses. Anything else you want to mention that you haven't mentioned? Well, we just love the fact that the mission of the university just meshes so well with the mission of Habitat. Habitat is about helping families, obviously, and making a difference in the community and to be able to provide an avenue for the university to strengthen the relationship with the local community, particularly South Bend. It was an honor for us to be selected to do this and to have a venue to help Notre Dame achieve part of their strategic plan and to build a bridge, as Dr. Dowd said, to the local community. It's very rewarding to be a part of it and we hope we can do more of it. Kathy Schuss, I'm Executive Director of Near Northwest Neighborhoods. Between the time I walked from the tent to the site, all of a sudden you can hear hammers flying. The crew leaders were ready and everybody has just been ready. It's so well organized. It's been so fun to hear Tim Sexton talk about neighbors coming out. With good cheer and they're also cheerleading and really everybody being positive about neighboring. My staff is here with Near Northwest Neighborhoods walking in the site right now. We're curious. We're happy. It's just really beautiful. It's really beautiful. How important is it for Notre Dame to partner with Habitat to partner with this year? Let's do this every year. Let's do this every year. It's huge. We've seen how Notre Dame has really spurred growth around the campus and to see them also then partner with Habitat for Humanity and focus directly on rebuilding other neighborhoods and focus on areas of the city that are already in a revitalization phase and low-income housing. I think the faculty and staff and admin live in our neighborhood as well as others. To have them be able to volunteer on low-income housing builds directly in their own neighborhood has been really powerful. I walked around the bay and said hi to half a dozen of NNN neighbors. It connects all the dots directly to revitalization efforts that have been going on over 25 years. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going.