Habitat finds new way to help needy

BATTLE GROUND — Evergreen Habitat for Humanity is opening up a second front in its ongoing effort to house needy people.

Rather than only build inexpensive new homes, Habitat has decided to pitch in with the upkeep, too. Its new “A Brush With Kindness” program is offering to take on light repair jobs, weatherization, painting and landscaping for the neediest homeowners.

“As an organization, we’re trying to show that we are not just about building houses, we’re also about preserving and improving neighborhoods,” said Habitat Executive Director Josh Townsley.

To kick off the program in highly visible fashion, 15 volunteers on Friday swarmed the grounds of the Battle Ground Senior Center, a modest building on Northeast Third Street that’s been lost to view behind overgrown hedges.

They pruned that shrubbery, sanded a weathered picnic table, pressure-washed the walkways and parking lot, and generally cleaned the place up. Twenty more volunteers were lined up to slap on a fresh coat of light green paint today, but organizers decided to postpone the job due to expected rain.

Meanwhile, an informational meeting on this new Habitat endeavor is set for 7 p.m. May 17 at the Battle Ground Community United Methodist Church, 10300 N.E. 199th Street. You’ll be able to learn all about the program and sign up to help — or to ask for help. Or, you can just call 360-737-1759.

If you want help, you’ll have forms to fill out and proof of income to provide. Income guidelines do apply.

If you want to volunteer, organizer Dave Gray said, don’t let a little thing like lack of skills stop you.

“If you have no skills whatsoever, we want you,” Gray said. “One thing I like about this program is that it can get everybody active in their own communities.”

Paints and tools were provided by Valspar and State Farm Insurance; the Camas-Washougal Community Chest provided money for an equipment trailer.

Back to work

Gray, a Washougal resident, was laid off not long ago after a long career as a building and property maintenance manager. Now, he’s an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer, on a mission to help maintain properties and buildings by creating a small army of volunteers and donations.

He wrote up a business plan and made the rounds of area churches to talk up the idea.

“We love these opportunities to get it out of the sanctuary and into the community,” said volunteer Mike Gaston from the First Presbyterian Church in Vancouver.

Plus, Gray’s own children — 13-year-old Colby and 15-year-old Kelsey — were on hand to help Friday.

“At a typical Habitat build, you cannot have teenagers,” he said. “Here, we can have the whole family come out.”

Gray said the repairs and jobs undertaken by A Brush With Kindness will usually be minor and cosmetic. And they’re definitely aimed at the neediest.

“We are not helping people who can afford it,” said Gray. “This is not about taking food off the tables of contractors. They have families and children to feed. We don’t want to compete with them.”

And it won’t usually be community facilities like the Senior Center — this was a special case to get the word out to a group he wants to reach, he said.

Senior citizens might have the most to risk when they get behind on their home upkeep, Gray said, or can’t afford to hire someone to do it.

“It can get so hard,” he said. “But they can wind up in code violations and even in foreclosure. We saw a great need to step in and help in situations like that.”

Volunteer Jan Shaul, a Yacolt resident who attends the Methodist church, was out on the sidewalk pushing a broom.

“I’m tired of doing it at home, so I came to do it here,” she said, laughing.