Scott Woodman reviews building plans with Executive Director Mary Boughton

So what does this mean for Peninsula Habitat?

Of course, we are monitoring the situation closely. While the weakening economy is worrisome and could present us with new challenges over the coming year, thankfully foreclosures are a virtual non-event at Peninsula Habitat and we remain well positioned as a leading provider of affordable housing in San Mateo County.

Peninsula Habitat's business model - the same Habitat model that has proved enormously effective worldwide for more than thirty years - goes a long way to ensure our success in building local homes for very low-income families. More importantly, it helps ensure their success as competent and reliable homeowners as well. By offering homes to qualifying families at a zero down and zero interest mortgage, combined with mandatory homeowner trainings and 500 hours of "sweat equity" work, our homeownership program has enjoyed a 99 percent success rate and demonstrates that responsible lending can work at all income levels.

In addition, Peninsula Habitat is nimble enough to meet changing city redevelopment needs and market dynamics. Transit-oriented density, for example, is currently one of the hottest trends in housing as an alternative to the horrendous commutes that some people endure for affordable housing in distant outlying areas.

I guess it's no coincidence that gas prices are also at an all-time high. Our prices here in the San Francisco Bay Area are higher than anywhere else in the continental United States - $3.72 on average vs. $3.27 nationally. Experts say there is a link between the price of gas and how far people are willing to drive for more affordable housing. "American sprawl was built on the twin pillars of low gas prices and a relentless demand for housing that, combined with the effects of restrictive zoning in existing suburbs, pushed new development outward toward cheap rural land," according to Eduardo Penalver, Associate Professor at Cornell Law School.

At the same time, we live in one of the most beautiful and pristine areas of the world, where the preservation of our open spaces - including coastal vistas, wetlands, marine sanctuaries, hills, forests, wildlife and much more - is of huge concern locally.

So it seems that these trends, and probably others as well, have converged to create a 'perfect storm' of events influencing how city planners think about redevelopment and especially how to build for the future.

"Accommodating a growing population in the era of high gas prices will mean increasing density and mixing land uses to enhance walkability and public transit," says Penalver, who foresees the "death" of sprawl.

Redwood City, for example, promotes high-density building in the downtown and transit hub areas of the city. Although the word "high-density" may conjure up images of ugly slum projects and high-rise rentals, the city looks to other examples (SoHo, Back Bay, Georgetown) where high-density building has worked for inspiration. Design elements such as aesthetics, functionality, convenience to shops, restaurants, offices, jobs, services, etc., and how pedestrian friendly the neighborhood is all factor in. "We are running out of open land to develop, and expanding into the San Joaquin Valley and other outlying areas often causes more problems than it solves. We simply must build more housing in existing urban areas," notes the Redwood City website.

Peninsula Habitat is also committed to transit-oriented higher-density building. We view this as an efficient way to combat sprawl and support the efforts of local cities to implement smart growth strategies along the transit corridor, including the Grand Boulevard initiative (www.elcaminoreborn.com). We think this makes good sense for city planning and for our Peninsula Habitat homeowners as well. While detached single-family homes have some advantages and desirability, the fact is that most Habitat homeowners are better served by higher-density building. If we can keep costs down and provide families with a high-quality home in a location that would not otherwise be available to them, then it's an effective solution for everyone involved, including the environment.

So, as 2008 gets into full swing and with an eye on our current construction pipeline, we feel very optimistic about the future. Peninsula Habitat dedicated four new homes in South San Francisco in February and our Redwood City project (a density project consisting of eight townhomes) is now underway.

And, thanks to your continued support, discussions are also in progress on additional long-term construction projects that will carry us well into the next decade.

Peninsula Habitat's Commercial Avenue construction project in South San Francisco came to a close with the dedication of four new homes there on Friday, February 29th.

South San Francisco Mayor Pedro Gonzalez and County Supervisor Rich Gordon were among local officials who attended the event.

Troop 3100 held food and cleaning supply drives to stock the new homes; with Mayor Gonzalez

Board Chairman Leif Langensand expressed special thanks to the city of South San Francisco for its generous land donation and especially for the city council's strong leader-ship and support for the project.

Speaking on behalf of Assemblymember Gene Mullin, Senior Field Representative Mark Nagales also thanked Peninsula Habitat. "Your organization highlights the impact affordable housing can have on the health and well-being of families. Too many times, the high cost of housing puts a significant and unfair burden on families to make a decision to either pay for rent or pay for medical costs. Your compassion with these families will give hope to others that some day they will also attain the same dream."

Coldwell Banker’s Sheran Honneyman congratulates the Burtons

Representatives from Amgen, the W.F. & Marie Batton Foundation, Coldwell Banker and Hathaway Dinwiddie presented house keys to our four new homeowner families - the Arias, Ball-Weaver, Burton and Celio families.

The Arias family receives the key to their new home from Hathaway Dinwiddie’s Katia Escobar

"We thank Peninsula Habitat for Humanity for helping change our future," said Edith Arias. "By giving us the opportunity of a lifetime, we can buy a house in our own community. Our gratitude goes to every single volunteer who helped build our home."

Mary Boughton, Executive Director of Peninsula Habitat, thanked everyone who helped make the Commercial Avenue project possible.

"Each of these homes is the culmination of a great effort by so many people: our wonderful volunteers -- many from faith communities and corporations -- the local cities, donors, our staff, the AmeriCorps, board of directors, and of course the amazing families you see here today."

Construction on Peninsula Habitat's newest affordable housing project for very low-income families is now underway in Redwood City, following final building approvals from the city. The project is made possible in part through a substantial land donation from the city, as well as a $195,000 grant from the State of California as the result of Proposition 46 funding for low-income housing.

Representing Peninsula Habitat's growing commitment to transit-oriented high-density building, the new site on Lincoln Avenue will include eight townhomes and is adjacent to El Camino Real, less than a mile from downtown Redwood City and public transportation.

Each home will employ "green" building principles and integrate solar electric panels into the roof to generate renewable electric energy. The development will also feature a common area including benches and a barbecue pit for all residents.

The Genentech team

Yet even the greatest gifts begin somewhere, and for companies like Abbott, Amgen, Genentech, and Theravance, they begin at the most fundamental level - with individual employees.

"I arrived at Amgen in July of 2006 and the staff bombarded me with 'We want to do something, we want to be involved in the community. Can you find us something that we can do as a team and get out and do some good?'" said Sandra Irwin, Senior Manager of Corporate Communications for Amgen, located in South San Francisco.

That same year, Amgen Foundation gave a large grant to Peninsula Habitat and Irwin eventually set up three staff days for Amgen employees to volunteer. She says that employees still stop her in the hallway to ask when the next Habitat work day will be.

The Corporate Signature Program was first inspired by Peninsula Habitat's "Buildable Hours" campaign, designed to engage companies in the legal field. Soon, the Corporate Signature Program had been expanded to encompass the real estate, biotechnology and financial services industries as well.

Peninsula Habitat provides Corporate Signature Partners a year-round opportunity to team-build and to become involved with the community. In return, Peninsula Habitat's corporate partners provide the financial backing that Peninsula Habitat can rely on year after year.

Genentech Employee

In 2007 alone, Peninsula Habitat was able to raise more than $75,000 through the biotechnology campaign. And biotech companies regularly bring groups of 10-35 people, multiple times in the year, contributing thousands of hours.

"Our program allows companies to come back to us," says Pourmand. "Some will come two or three times in a year to work on the same project, with the same group of people over and over again, working alongside future Peninsula Habitat homeowners who are the benefactors of their community service."

Amgen, which specifically funded the Commercial Avenue project in South San Francisco, has had roughly 75-80 employees volunteer and values Peninsula Habitat's work.

"In the business of making a drug, it can be 15 years between the time when someone thinks of the drug and goes through clinical trials and gets approved by the FDA. It can be a very long time before you see the results," says Amgen's Irwin. "With Peninsula Habitat, you see the results right away."

For many biotech companies, there's also a passion for Peninsula Habitat's cause.

"Peninsula Habitat for Humanity was one of the groups selected by employees who were interested in helping local residents, and who liked the ability to focus on housing in the Bay Area," said Colleen Wilson, Director of Community and Patient Programs at Genentech.

Most biotech companies also find that their employees are deeply invested in volunteering and that the search for a drug to cure grievous illness is not unlike the efforts being made to find tangible solutions to the housing crisis affecting Bay Area families.

Through their growing partnerships, and the work of an ever-increasing group of dedicated, passionate biotechnology employees, the dreams of more and more Peninsula Habitat families come true every year.

Stacy Ball-Weaver at the South San Francisco construction site

But now, "home" also means moving for the last time. It means coming to a place where she can finally unpack all those boxed up photographs of her children and grandchildren; where she can punch nails in the walls till her arm gets tired of hanging, and where she can come in the door after work, look at all the pictures and certificates of her family, and know that she never has to take them down again.

Ball-Weaver is the owner of a new Peninsula Habitat home in South San Francisco, which was completed at the end of February.

The act of building a home is never easy, and for Peninsula Habitat homeowners it becomes especially meaningful through 500 hours of sweat equity required to qualify for a Peninsula Habitat home. Ball-Weaver says it was difficult beyond her imagination, "but what Peninsula Habitat is asking is a blessing: that you get to be a part of your home's construction in a way that most people never will be."

The Ball-Weaver Family

"My children participated in a lot of the building," said Ball-Weaver affectionately. She recounts stories of her daughter teaching other volunteers how to perform a task, her son taking something heavy from another volunteer and asking "where do you want me to put this?"

"People on the job site asked me 'How do you get these teenagers out here every week?' when really it would be my kids asking me on Friday 'Are we working tomorrow?'" said Ball-Weaver. "They never wavered or questioned, and now they gained a sense of their own pride about the house."

Although Ball-Weaver has finished her 500 hours of sweat equity, she can't stay away from the site and still spends some Saturdays volunteering with Peninsula Habitat.

Ten years ago, Ball-Weaver thought she would never be able to own a home in San Mateo County. Five years ago, she heard about Peninsula Habitat. For three and a half years after that, she checked the website twice a week before work to see when they might be building in South San Francisco. Now, all these years later, after a long wait and many challenges along the way, Ball-Weaver can enjoy many years ahead in her new home with her family … and her pictures on the wall. To view stories about other South San Francisco homeowner families, click here.

The positive contrast of 2007's JCWP with the local psychological climate was not lost on the two women. "It was such a great time for us to be doing what we were doing-in such a devastating moment when people were losing their homes," said Sartor, development and volunteer associate at Peninsula Habitat.

Over the five days of the Project, President Carter greeted an enthusiastic crowd of staff and volunteers estimated by Habitat to top 4,000. One of the great modern cases of leadership by example, President Carter was described by Sartor and Robledo as "just another volunteer" when it was time to go to work.

The number of homes tackled by the JCWP varies from year to year, depending on material costs and other factors. This year's build focused on 30 "slab builds," or homes built essentially from the ground up, and 70 "rehab" homes. This twist on Habitat's usual mission is part of a new pilot program called Brush With Kindness. While Habitat's typical focus is supporting individual families struggling to become homeowners, Brush With Kindness puts the emphasis on raising a community's self-image through improving the quality and appearance of its existing homes.

Robledo and Sartor came away from 2007's JCWP energized and mulling fresh ideas for Peninsula Habitat. "It was really inspiring to see the corporate support," said Robledo. "CitiBank had 30 volunteers who took the entire week off to work at the JCWP. It's a wonderful way to attract sponsors."