Reflections on home.

April is Fair Housing Month, commemorating passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which forbids discrimination based on age, color, race, and other factors when renting, selling, or financing a house.
At Habitat for Humanity, April is Home is the Key month, a time to recognize the power of affordable housing to transform families and communities.

One event celebrates “housing,” and the other, ‘home.” So, we need to ask:  What’s the difference? Do you need a house to make a home? Are “house” and “home” the same thing? Does it even matter?

To start, “home” and “house” have become synonymous, but in a way they’re not, just as “body” and “soul” are not synonymous. A house is a physical object that contains a home, just like a body contains a soul. And it is possible to make a home without a house because home is, if you think about it, a state of mind. Home is sanctuary. It’s a place to prepare to interact with the world and to recover from those interactions, to celebrate life’s joys and mourn its sorrows. It’s a soft place to fall and to make memories with families and friends. It’s a place to make your own, with plants outside and personal touches inside. It where family is, regardless of the physical location.

The soul yearns for home, not house – just ask Dorothy where she wanted those ruby slippers to take her.

While “home” can be anywhere, there’s no denying the power of the physical structure called a house. To start, that structure provides stability and a fixed place for family to be together and to enjoy the comforts of that thing called home. A house provides a financial foundation for a family. A house can be the physical expression of a home, through gardening, decorative touches, and the collection of home-made pictures and photos on the refrigerator door.

Both “home” and “house” underpin successful families and communities. Here in Sheboygan, we need to offer the promise of “house” and “home” to more of our fellow citizens. In Sheboygan, the median household income of $62,000 falls far short of the $82,000 median income needed to buy a modest home in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, one in eight families spends more than half its gross income on housing. That’s not sustainable and it’s not acceptable.
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Habitat for Humanity Lakeside plans to build more houses over the years, as detailed in our Strategic Plan posted on this website. Donations of money and items for our ReStore always help, but now our immediate need is for volunteers for the committees crucial to help fulfilling our strategic plan. Please, if you are skilled professional in the Sheboygan area, come and talk to us. There are few things more satisfying than watching an empty lot become a house occupied by a family who’s making that house a home. Come see for yourself.