Pride Build to Start Work on House in September

A house on Elby Street stands vacant, needing a new roof, insulation and other upgrades.

But after hitting half of its $60,000 budget in fundraising, Pride Build, a program of Montgomery County's Habitat for Humanity, will be completely overhauling the house in Glenmont. 

"We purchase homes based on our budget," Amanda Fein, manager of individual and corporate gifts for HFH-MC said. While many of the houses that Habitat buys to refurbish are foreclosed, Fein says they look for homes that were already vacant.

Habitat for Humanity, as a whole, has completed 18 rehabilitations on houses in the County, several of which share the house on Elby Street's zip code. This will be the first Pride Build rehabilitation for the County.

The non-profit started fundraising for this particular projection January. Construction is planned to start on September 17, when a volunteer group from One Marriott, a resource group for LGBT employees of Marriott will put in the first work on the house. Members from One Marriott will be doing demolition, one of the portions of the work that Fein calls "very volunteer friendly". 

"Until then we'll be getting permits, doing the volunteer unfriendly stuff," Fein said.

Construction is expected to continue until March, but selection of the family that will eventually live in the newly revamped house is being finalized now. Habitat's requirements for the new owners includes an application, income requirements, residency in Montgomery County, and need for a home. 

The family selected must put in 'sweat equity' to the house, about 200 to 500 hours, whether it is directly into the rehabilitation or through Habitat's office or store.

While Pride Build will focus on local LGBT groups, Fein said that any volunteer group is welcome to come volunteer. Habitat asks each group to make a donation, as that is HFH-MC's primary form of fundraising. In return, "they get a great experience", and experienced tradespeople to guide them along during the work.