Habitat For Humanity
Ripoff wrongfully terminated our partnership with them, after completing 95% of the required sweat equity hours needed

My family was wrongfully terminated from the Habitat For Humanity program, after partnering with them for over 3 years and completing 95% of the required sweat equity hours needed to own our own home.

Sweat equity requirements, when we began the program were; Two adults are required to complete a minimum of 350 hours together. At least 280 of those hours have to be on habitat construction and at least 70 of those hours on non construction.

The other hours can be earned by donating a maximum of 100 education hours, earned by the family and 20 hours donated by the family partner. Others can donate hours to the families plan, up to a maximum of 150 hours, either on construction or non construction.

We were also told that families with two adults, with disabilities were required to only complete a minimum of 500 hours. 150-300 hours were the minimum hours the homeowner must earn together.

0-280 hours was the minimum construction hours and 0-300 hours was the minimum construction and/or non construction hours required by the homeowner.

The remaining hours could be earned by donating a maximum of 100 education hours earned by the family and 20 hours donated by the family partner. Others can donate 200-350 hours either in construction or non construction.

We were also informed in writing that construction hours could be earned by children under the age of 18 (which we intended only our 9 and 7 year old to help by doing clean up around the site, painting and landscaping as long as a parent was present to provide supervision. Habitat denied us this access, once my husband and I became temporarally disabled (physically.

I was 9 months pregnant and experiencing complications. My husband had severly wounded his ribs, muscles and tendons when the jack that was supporting our van, fell on him while he was working on it.

He was medically discharged from work by his doctor for over 4 months (starting in January and ending in May) with regular visits in between to the doctor on a bi-weekly basis.

Physical therapy was something he needed to do, twice a week. Habitat For Humanity was far from understanding our situation (they made that very clear) and reluctant to wanting to understand it.

Their Motto "We are here to give a hand up not a hand out" started to seem like "We are here to let you down not help you up." We broke ground on our house in December construction was delayed (due to weather conditions) until the end of February.

Once they began on our house they DEMANDED us to be out at the site. We informed them again of our temporary disabilities and what our restrictions were, stated by our doctors. We were being told by the clearical assistant to go out there and be a gofer.

Bring the volunteers drinks and tools and what ever they needed. The Director of Operations told us to just go out to the construction site. "They will be happy just to see you there." he said. We did exactly what they said.

My husband and I went down there to show our gratitude. We didn't just stand there and watch them work. I walked around and gave drinks and donuts to the volunteers. We checked everyones Id cards that arrived to make sure they were permitted on the construction site and had them sign in.

The Director of Operations arrived and we stood there talking to him about how disappointing this was for us, to just be watching everyone else in the construction of OUR home.

Hands on construction was what my husband and I have dreamed about doing the whole time we were in the program. Now all that we can do is watch from the sidelines. He then repeated the same statement to us on just being there at the construction site and letting all the volunteers see our faces was all they expect from us due to our conditions.

Little did we know, the volunteers didn't have the slightest clue of our disabilities and our restrictions. We were told numerous times by our home partner, and the Director of Operations that all the volunteers were informed of our circumstances and that we can only do what is not going to hinder our recovery.

Our family partner instructed us to email the Habitat office with a schedule of the hours we could be out at the construction site (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays)

I was going to school full time for accounting. Tuesdays and Thursdays I had one class from 8 a. M till 9:30 A.M. My husband had physical therapy Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a. M till 11A.M.

I typed up a letter and emailed it to them right away stating that on Tuesdays and Thursdays we could be there from 11:30 a. M to when ever they finished for the day (usually around 2:30 p. M) We never took a break in between then. Saturdays I stated that we could be there from 8am till when ever they finished for the day (usually the same time during the week)

So pretty much when ever we could be at the construction site we were there (occasionally we would leave around 1 p. M due to hot weather conditions). Again that was not good enough for Habitat For Humanity.

Dispite all the caos and negativity surrounding us at the time (School, 4 kids plus one on the way, husbands injury, lack of income, and habitat for Humanity telling us were not doing everything we can) we did what we were asked to do.

Our family partner called us on the phone and said that they received my email stating our plan to be on the site. The General Contractor (superintendent) on the site and some of the volunteers thought we didn't deserve to have the house being built for us.

The General contractor stated that to us. They didn't believe we were telling the truth about our restrictions and habitat didn't care to inform them of such.

We still came on the days that we planned and did what we could. We were always ordered around to assist with certain jobs. We felt we were asking too much of them for a simple please and thank you for our help.

The looks we got and the wispering we heard going on made us feel like we were back in junior high school again. We tried to stay as much to our selves as possible without offending anybody.

We would always say hello and good bye everyday regardless of their non responsivness. We didn't feel right in our own skin. We definitly got the hint that we were not liked.

April the general contractor or superintendent falsely accused my husband and I of trying to take credit for hours that we were not there. We told our new family partner about this and she said she was not aware of it, but she would find out more and get back to us by the end of the week.

Well the G.C. And a volunteer approached us with this accusation again (at the construction site) the same day. I was so emotional due to all the stress I was under.

I replied with a remark of "I don't need to listen to you (meaning his false accusations)" and he stated that "I don't need to work any further on your house." Then he started walking away.

I said "go, I don't need you. "That was the end of our conversation. The volunteer that came over with the G.C. Added that all the volunteers were here to help us build our house and I came back with a tearful and shakey response of "NO THEY ARE NOT (here to help us)."That was it, he then walked away.

I'll agree that wasn't the best coice of words that could of come out of my mouth, but it was my feelings at the time and I was on a huge emotional roller coaster ride. I was not totally in control of anything at that moment.

The rest of the day I was on an adrenaline rush. I finished my work in record time. We continued to work untill everyone packed up for the day. We said thank you and good bye to everyone and we went home.

The next day we received a call from habitat stating there was not going to be any work on the site for the next day. We asked why not and nobody could answer us. I called our home partner and asked her why there was not going to be work and she said she didn't know why either. Nobody would give us a straight answer.

That Friday April 8th we had a meeting with our new home partner. When we arrived at the office we sat down with 5-6 other people including the home partner. Our meeting was being recorded.

We were informed that everyone of the volunteers and the G.C. Refused to work any further on the construction of our house. When asked who and why they couldn't really tell us why.

Based on what the G.C. And the volunteer stated we were swearing at them. We told them that was a lie and asked if we could actually read what they said that was in our file and they refused to show us.

We asked if their was any reasonable way we could all sit down together and talk things through and they said we could try but only in a letter. We tried to explain things to the G.C. And the volunteer in the letter and we said we were wanting to apoligize for anything that was taken the wrong way.

We didn't seem to make them change their minds they told habitat they still refuse to work with us. So the Board of Directors said we were deselected as family homeowners. When we heard that I started crying I had so many mixed emotions.

I told them that they were taking this away from our children not us and they didn't change their minds. My husband was taking it easier than I was. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I wanted to just run and hide and I couldn't seem to do that.

This wasn't just something we will get over. We spent years on a dream that habitat gave to us and took away in a matter of seconds it seemed. Habitat and all the volunteers never treated us like this until we became temporarally disabled.

The years before this happened nobody could say one bad thing about us. We worked with lots and lots of volunteers and 2 differnent habitat staff change overs. No matter what we said nothing could change their mind.

We do not feel our family was treated with respect and honesty that we gave to everyone. To me this feels like we were discriminated against because of our disabilities. No we were not restricted to a wheel chair. We could do things that some other disabled people couldn't do.

But we were still treated as though we had no problems with our health and abilities to do the work like every other normal family. I will not rest until I feel like our family is treated equally to everyone else in the same situation. I look forward to any coments that anyone has on this matter and any way others can help us with this problem.

Company: Habitat For Humanity
Country: USA
State: Arizona
City: Prescott
Address: 1230 Willow Creek Road
Phone: 9284458003

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