HBA Milestones
construction crew of HBA volunteers was kept going by Gatorade and snacks delivered by the HBA staff and provided by the HBA Auxiliary.8 During the 2006-2007 bar year, the Habitat for Humanity Committee raised money to build two houses in celebration of the committee’s 10-year anniversary. Nancy J. Brown, who was the committee chair that year and had helped build a house in 2006, noted that the “best part was working alongside the homeowner to be.”9 By Anna M. Archer She pointed out that because the new homeowners must pay mortn its early years, the HBA’s primary focus was on legal ethgages and help build Habitat for Humanity homes, “It’s not a handics and preserving the dignity of the profession. It eventuout, it’s a hand up.”10 Brown’s committee recruited 250 volunteers ally turned to providing services for lawyers. With notable to build the two Habitat homes in 2007, and they worked for three exceptions such as establishing Legal Aid clinics, Law Day consecutive weekends on new homes programs, and the Houston Lawfor families of a toll authority worker yer Referral Service, the HBA did not and a childcare worker.11 turn its attention to serving the comIn 2017, Houston Habitat for Humunity until 1974, when the HBA manity honored the HBA with its ininstituted “Operation Reachout” to augural Legacy Award during its 30th “bring the bar back into the commu1 Anniversary celebration. The award nity.” The HBA leaders behind this recognized the HBA’s commitment to effort believed that “lawyers had a building homes for low-income famiprofessional responsibility to serve lies over the past 20 years.12 the public and give something back to While the HBA was originally foundthe community.”2 This change in foed to preserve the dignity of our procus provided immense benefits to the fession, the modern HBA has realized Houston community in the following If you are interested in giving back to the community years, but perhaps the most concrete through the HBA’s Habitat for Humanity program, the that our dignity is partially tied to servand lasting effect of the HBA’s deci- committee still needs $5,000 to meet its goal to build ing the community in which we live. Through building Habitat homes, we the HBA’s 23rd Habitat Home in the Spring of 2021. sion to reach out to the community Donate at hba.org/habitat. continue the tradition established by came 23 years later when the HBA HBA leaders from the 1870s through today of building an organizabuilt its first Houston Habitat for Humanity house. tion that continues to evolve as Houston’s needs evolve. The HBA began participating in Houston Habitat for Humanity during the 1997-1998 bar year. The Hon. Richard Trevathan was Anna Archer is editor in chief of The Houston Lawyer and a member the HBA President, and the Honorable Andrew S. Hanen was the of The Houston Lawyer’s history subcommittee Habitat for Humanity Committee Chair. The first house was part
Bringing the Bar Back to the Community:
Habitat for Humanity
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of a special “Blitz Week” during which 100 Habitat for Humanity homes were built in Houston.3 Blitz Week was a component of the Jimmy Carter Work Project and was “the largest effort attempted in the United States.”4 Since 1998, over 4,556 HBA volunteers have helped build 22 houses. Families that have benefitted from the HBA’s Houston Habitat for Humanity projects include single parents, families who were displaced due to freeway construction or hurricanes, and Vietnam Veterans. The HBA funds the building materials and provides volunteers to build the houses.5 In order to qualify for the program, the new homeowners must demonstrate a need for housing, provide up to 250 hours of “sweat equity” with Houston Habitat for Humanity, and meet certain income and credit requirements.6 Judge Andrew S. Hanen, who helped build the first home, said that he could not “fathom an experience more intense or rewarding than the five days many of us spent in June hammering, sawing, and sweating.”7 He noted that the heat was constant, but the
Endnotes
1. ERIC L. FREDERICKSON, A COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC SERVICE: THE HISTORY OF THE HOUSTON BAR ASSOCIATION (1992). 2. Id. 3. The homeowner of the first HBA Habitat House, Alex Lane, paid off the mortgage for this home in June 2013. 4. Christine Nguyen, Habitat for Humanity and Its Home in Houston, HOUS. HIST., Fall 2017, at 13. 5. The materials totaled $45,000 in 1998; they have now increased to $70,000 per house. The HBA has raised and spent a total of $1,390,000 on Habitat for Humanity houses. 6. Homeownership,Hous.HabitatforHumanity,https://www.houstonhabitat.org/services/ homeownership/ (last visited Aug. 13, 2020); see also Shelley Elias, HBA Helps Build Someone’s Dream Through Habitat Project, HOUS. LAW. (May-June 1998). 7. Andrew S. Hanen, Habitat: One Hand One Heart One House, HOUS. LAW. (July-Aug. 1998). The HBA originally built these homes in the summer, but now the building typically is completed in the spring. 8. Id. 9. Ruth E. Pillar, Habitat Committee’s Tenth Birthday Has It Seeing Double, HOUS. LAW. (Sep.-Oct. 2006). While homeowners must still provide “sweat equity,” they are no longer required to help build their own home. 10. Id. 11. HBA Habitat Project Celebrates First Decade with Two Homes, HOUS. LAW. (May-June 2007). 12. Press Release, HBA, Houston Habitat for Humanity Honors HBA with First Legacy Award (Oct. 31, 2017) (on file with the HBA).
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