Pensacola Habitat’s Essential Workers

by Dianne McMaster

Any employee of any finance department of any organization is deemed essential from day one. Businesses still have bills to pay, deposits to be made, financial statements to be prepared, payroll to be done, and analysis to be completed. Pensacola Habitat’s finance staff is no different. However, we still have families and not just the ones waiting for us at home. Our homebuyers are a part of the Pensacola Habitat family. The heart of our organization is the genuine affection and love we have for the families we serve. Every transaction serves a purpose to serve our families. Bills are paid to suppliers to build our homes, and the majority of those suppliers are from our community. An analysis is performed to stretch our cash as far as humanly possible to serve more families. The office closure was to keep people safe including the staff and the families that still come inside to pay their mortgages each month. We have nearly 1,000 families and roughly 60% of those use our drop box or enter the office each month to make payments, and we have a deep connection to and miss those families. As a part of the new normal, we asked all our families to mail their payments or use the drop box outside the office. We used the extra time to brainstorm new ideas and to streamline the payment process for ourselves and those we serve.

Thankfully, we were still here to keep answering the calls with questions and to offer advice and counsel to those experiencing hardships. The pandemic has created a challenge for our community; those calls were tough to hear. Hearing those stories created a personal commitment for us to continue looking for solutions and organizations for our families to reach out to in this time of crisis.

While the finance staff was deemed essential, we were not here all day, every day. Many finance employees had kids to homeschool. Four of our finance staff have elementary-aged children and younger in their homes. While that age has been introduced to computers and can probably use a cell phone or tablet better than the parents, distance learning was a new experience.

We are still closed to the public for payments and will likely stay that way through June. We look forward to the day we can see our families. Until then, we pray everyone continues to stay safe!