The Habitat for Humanity project spent the week learning about housing inequality and volunteering at the Habitat for Humanity Restore in addition to working at build sites in Elgin and Forest Park. Overall, the project gave students a better understanding of affordable housing in addition to practical skills for homeownership.
To start off the week, we watched a documentary about the history of redlining and racial discrimination in the housing market. We then took a bus tour around the city, visiting Pilsen and making stops around the neighborhood to see art and get tacos while learning about housing discrimination in real time.
Junior Theodore Tikhomirov said, “The tour was nuanced and informative, and it really opened my eyes to the differing perspectives of people living in different parts of Chicago.”
On Tuesday, we volunteered at the ReStore, a Habitat for Humanity-run store that sells affordable second-hand items. We spent the day sorting through donations, organizing the store’s floor, and unloading trucks.
We had the opportunity to work at an actual build site in Elgin on Wednesday. We learned how to lay flooring using the “Todd method,” a term coined by longtime Habitat for Humanity volunteer Todd Tifft, and others painted ceilings and used power tools to cut wood.
“The Todd Method of putting down flooring is the only way to do flooring in my opinion,” Mr. Tifft said.
On Thursday, we traveled out to Forest Park to help at a different build site. We cleaned up the backyard of an almost complete Habitat home by cutting up wood that was lying around the yard and transporting it to a nearby dumpster. Then, we cleared out the garage by taking all of the trash in it to another dumpster a few houses down.
We returned to the build site in Elgin on Friday and completed another large chunk of the flooring in the house. We also painted the porch and did other tasks to help out the regular volunteers.
Senior Sofia Testai said, “I met a lot of people [on this Project Week] and it helped me learn the different aspects of house-making.”
