Carrie Rathmann, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, reflects on the impact of 1,000 households served through critical home repairs. | photo by Cary Porter
On Friday, November 15, Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia staff and supporters gathered in West Philadelphia to celebrate the organization’s 1,000th home repair. The milestone comes at the halfway point of a three-year doubling in capacity for Habitat’s home repair program, scaling up resources and staff to provide 200 repairs per year by 2026.
Elected officials Sen. Vincent Hughes, Rep. Morgan Cephas, Councilmember Curtis Jones, Jr. and PHFA Director Robin Wiessmann joined Habitat Philadelphia leadership to acknowledge this achievement and reflect on the importance of critical home repairs in stabilizing communities.
Critical home repairs such as roofs, kitchens, foundations and heating systems address the need for safe, affordable housing and preserve independence and generational wealth.
“Today we celebrate 1,000 households served,” says Carrie Rathmann, Vice President of Strategic Partnership. “That’s thousands of individual lives impacted. That is 1,000 households remaining in their neighborhood. That’s 1,000 households enjoying greater stability, comfort and well-being.”
Home repair client, Ms. Prince, in front of her West Philadelphia home. | photo by Cary Porter
The celebration took place at the home of Lisa Prince, who provides for her daughter and three grandchildren. Ms. Prince shared how the repairs Habitat is providing – new heating system, new main and porch roofing, new siding and foundation repair – will impact her family.
“The roof was leaking and I didn’t know the heater was more broken than I realized until we went down there,” says Ms. Prince. “You answered the call quickly even though you didn’t know I was crying. You answered that call and I’m just so grateful.”
Thanks to the support of the Habitat community, we are able to continue working alongside Philadelphia homeowners like Ms. Prince and look forward to repairing the next 1,000 homes in our city.
A special thank you to the William Penn Foundation for their generous multi-year grant, Philadelphia Energy Authority, Mantua Powelton Alliance, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Jefferson Health, Spark Therapeutics, Fannie Mae, W.W. Smith Foundation and Prosperity Home Mortgage for supporting this work.