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A Few Clouds Walking for a cause in Nassau
In support of Habitat World Day, and to raise awareness of the current housing crisis and the need for adequate housing in Nassau, local residents participated in Habitat For Humanity of Nassau County’s three-mile Walk-A-Thon on Oct. 30, at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. Among those residents were several H. Frank Carey High School students, who recently created a Habitat For Humanity club to support HFHNC.
More than 100 locals walked, raising more than $3,000 for a house currently under construction on Brush Hollow Road in New Cassel. The family moving into the home includes a single mother of four. One of her children is handicapped.
HFHNC is also currently building a house in Mineola, which will soon be a home for Mary, Kathleen, William, Michael, Timothy and Theresa Clarkin, siblings who are all developmentally disabled. When their parents passed away several years ago, the family home was passed on to the Clarkin children, but fell into disrepair not long after and the state condemned the home. Recently, Disability Opportunity Fund teamed up with HFHNC to help fund the construction of the Mineola home.
According to Kay McKiernan, a longtime volunteer of HFHNC, both projects are slated to be completed before Christmas, and shortly thereafter, Habitat will begin constructing a home in Roosevelt. The local family who will live in the Roosevelt home will be selected in the coming weeks by the organization’s Selection Committee, she added.
Nassau residents can apply for HFHNC builds online, through an application process that determines need based on family history and income levels, as well as a family’s willingness to work with Habitat on the construction, and includes several interviews. No down payment is required, and no interest is attached to the standard, 30-year mortgage of HFHNC homes.
Soon to be celebrating its 20th anniversary, HFHNC builds one to two homes annually, and has built homes in the Village of Hempstead, Glen Cove, New Cassel, Oceanside and Elmont. The Elmont home, located on Lewis Avenue and Hempstead Turnpike, was completed in June 2010.
“The cost of living in Nassau County is higher than that in many [other communities],” said Andy LaRocca, an HFHNC volunteer who was instrumental in the Walk-A-Thon’s creation. “The cost of home purchase and high rates of interest on mortgages makes it impossible for many families to even dream about buying a home. Our organization provides an opportunity for hard-working Nassau County families to overcome those obstacles.”
HFHNC is an affiliate of the international Habitat For Humanity, which has constructed half a million houses worldwide to date. For more information, visit https://www.HFHNC.org.
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