4 minute read
Fauquier Habitat For Humanity Adds SOME LOCAL HERITAGE
Fauquier Habitat For Humanity Adds SOME LOCAL HERITAGE
By Jodi Nash
More than 1.8 million people in Bangladesh live in informal settlements, according to the country’s 2022 census. The capital city of Dhaka alone has some 5,000 slums, with an estimated 2,000 people a day relocating there, many displaced by rising sea levels and fierce tropical storms.
With no enforceable building code, perilous footpaths, poor sanitation, and inadequate storm water drainage and sewage disposal, the rainy season brings infectious disease from standing water in gullies flooded with garbage and debris. On average 15 households, or 70 people share a single toilet.
“I’m happy to be back working in Fauquier, where I was active for so long ... I love what I’m doing.”
One four-acre settlement created in 1999 is home to 700 families. It now has access to clean water and is connected to the government’s electrical grid thanks to Habitat for Humanity’s “Home Equals” five-year advocacy campaign.
The program is dedicated to achieving policy changes ensuring the billion people currently living in slums or temporary shantytowns around the world can have access to adequate housing. That in turn, is a powerful catalyst for longer life expectancy, better schooling, and increased economic growth.
For those who think of Habitat for Humanity in purely “domestic” terms, think again. Ignited by a vision that everyone deserves a decent place to live and work, the non-profit began in 1976 as a local grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia.
Developed around the concept of “partnership housing,” it’s now a dynamic leader in all 50 American states, and a serious stake-holder in providing a “hand up” to displaced populations in more than 70 countries. Former President Jimmy Carter was an active Habitat volunteer for close to four decades, hammer in hand and helping to build many Habitat homes.
Habitat partners with corporations (e.g. Wells Fargo, Bank of America), foundations, governments, philanthropists, NGO’s, academic/research centers, and most crucially the settlement residents themselves. It now has a vast global footprint, devoted to breaking down complex institutional barriers to adequate housing and to altering old power dynamics by building collective cooperation through effective new alliances.
On the local stage, enter Catherine (“Katie”) M. Heritage, Fauquier Habitat’s new director of affordable home ownership, on the job for three months and just home from Habitat’s affiliate conference in Atlanta, Georgia. With 200-plus presenters, 170 workshops, and more than 2,000 attendees from around the world, there was much to learn and many fellow Habitat professionals to network with.
A public servant her whole career, with a law degree from George Mason University, she’s had a 24-year career in Fauquier County government, first as director of court services. She then moved to administration in 2003, becoming assistant to the deputy administrator and later deputy county administrator
In 2021 she became the deputy CEO of Northwestern Community Services serving the City of Winchester and five surrounding counties. She worked in operations to provide case management and residential/emergency programs for people with emotional/behavioral disorders, mental illness, or substance use and developmental disabilities.
When a reduction in force led to the elimination of that position, Katie was involuntarily retired and restless. “I considered retirement,” she said, “but on a whim I posted a message to Linked In: ‘Retirement’s not for me—I’m bored!’”
From this serendipitous digital “share” came contact with Melanie Burch, president and CEO of Fauquier Habitat. They had lunch and a conversation, and now Katie is happily back at work, acting as a legislative advocate, educator and fundraiser at local, state and federal levels.
She also handles some grant writing, administration, community outreach and cultivating new financial donors and investment sponsors for the organization. Another major focus will be meeting the area’s immediate needs for local workforce housing, so that teachers, nurses, healthcare workers, police and firefighters can afford to live where they work.
“I’m happy to be back working in Fauquier, where I was active for so long,” she said. “I love what I’m doing.”
