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Did You Know ? Each house Joshua House Fund builds costs approximately $40,000. |
Background |
The Joshua House Fund was born in 1997 in an effort to continue a building initiative begun by a local church community. JHF's construction projects have been largely concentrated in one of the poorest regions in the United States, the Appalachian section of Kentucky. Now joined by a prominent Connecticut construction company, JHF typically builds two homes each summer for disadvantaged families identified by area mission workers. JHF provides all the building materials, as well as hiring unemployed local builders to finish the houses when the volunteers return home. Each future homeowner is required to participate in the build, as well as make the most negligible of monthly payments In the summer of 2000, JHF expanded its home building areas to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. JHF worked in conjunction with the Red Feather Development Group and the University of Washington to build the area's first straw bale home, an innovative approach to utilizing the local environment's natural resources to create affordable housing.
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| Building Support |
The Joshua House Fund has been incredibly fortunate to have partnered with Kent Eppley, Mike Palumbo and the crew from ERI Building and Design of Darien, CT. Kent learned of the Joshua House Fund from it's fund-raising co-chairs, and decided it was a perfect way to lend a hand. Kent enthusiastically climbed on board and throughout the year graciously coordinated donations of building materials from local vendors as well as monetary contributions from his client list. As summer approached, Kent put together a group of five contractors from ERI Building & Design to accompany the teen and parent volunteers signed up to travel to Kentucky to build a home for those in need. Kent coordinated the donation of doors and windows along with other building materials from Ring's End, plumbing fixtures (sinks. tubs, commodes, hot water heaters) from Klaff's in Norwalk and a refrigerator and cook top stove/oven from County TV & Appliance in Stamford. He also compiled donations of kitchen cabinets, counter tops, and two sets of washers and driers for the homes to be built. ERI coordinated the delivery of all these items to rural Kentucky on a Marvin Windows & Doors truck returning to Tennessee empty after a delivery to Connecticut.