MHDC partners with Kansas City Habitat for “Homes from the Heartland” project

Pete Ramsel, acting MHDC Executive Director was on hand March 22 at Kansas City Hall to kick off Kansas City’s involvement in Operation Home Delivery.  The project is being conducted by the City of Kansas City, Mo., and Habitat for Humanity Kansas City and will build homes for New Orleans families left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.

The nationwide Operation Home Delivery program enlists volunteers in cities across the country to pre-build housing components, package them in containers and ship them to the Gulf Coast to be permanently set up.

Details of the Kansas City project, dubbed “Homes from the Heartland,” were announced March 22 at a news conference and kick-off event at City Hall.  In one week, teams of volunteers from the City, other government agencies, corporations and organizations will build at least 10 "homes in a box" to be shipped to families in Louisiana. The building event will be held June 17-23 on the north side of the Liberty Memorial.

“With rebuilding in Louisiana under way, we are pleased to partner with Habitat for Humanity Kansas City to help Louisiana families devastated by Hurricane Katrina to get into homes that will serve them for many years to come,” Mayor Kay Barnes said.  “I encourage our citizens and the business community to get involved by volunteering or becoming a sponsor. Together we can let the world know that Kansas City’s nickname as the ‘heartland’ of America comes from more than just geography. Kansas City is truly a city with a heart.”

MHDC is sponsoring one of the 10 “homes in a box” with funds provided for Hurricane Katrina relief by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines.  In addition to MHDC house sponsors include American Century Investments, National Association of the Remodeling Industry (Kansas City), and Timberland PRO in partnership with SkillsUSA.

Plans call for the houses to include a heart symbol on the front of each house and each family to receive a fountain to be placed in their yard. The homes will mirror traditional Habitat homes, providing approximately 1,100 to 1,300 square feet of living space.

“Hurricane Katrina came and went in a matter of days, but the unprecedented destruction, devastation and human suffering continues today. Kansas City has not forgotten. Last September, City staff began meeting with Habitat for Humanity Kansas City and formed the partnership that will make the Homes for the Heartland project a reality,” City Manager Wayne A. Cauthen said.

“I was blessed because I did not have any family that was displaced by the hurricanes; however, as a child my family lost everything in a fire twice. So I do understand, firsthand, the sense of loss and devastation,” said Yahna Gibson, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Kansas City. “That’s why we are all here today - to help some of our own - not here locally, but in a community hundreds of miles away. Helping to rebuild lives and restore hope to some who may think the world has forgotten them.”
 

The event at the Liberty Memorial also will include activities for families; including entertainment, food vendors and hands-on activities, such as a construction-themed arts and crafts tent for children.

For more information, please call Habitat for Humanity Kansas City at (816) 924-1096.

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MHDC is the state's housing finance agency. The Commission is dedicated to strengthening communities and the lives of Missourians through the financing, development and preservation of affordable housing. Since 1969, MHDC has encouraged and assisted in the production of affordable rental housing and provided homeownership opportunities for thousands of families while investing almost $4 billion in Missouri housing for rental housing developments, home mortgages, home improvement loans, loans to landlords for renovations, grants to neighborhood housing groups and other programs.  MHDC does not build or renovate housing itself; rather, it functions as a bank, providing financing directly to borrowers or through a network of private lending institutions. Most of MHDC's programs operate as a public-private partnership.