OAK VIEW : Volunteers Build a House, Gain Land
Habitat for Humanity volunteers gathered Sunday at Charles Henderson’s new three-bedroom home in Oak View to celebrate the completion of the group’s first house in Ventura County.
“It feels real good,” said Henderson, who for more than 20 years lived in adobe brick structures he built on his Mountain View Street property.
But when the county forced him to move because the structures did not meet building codes, Henderson approached the local Habitat for Humanity group for help. The private, nonprofit organization helps poor families rehabilitate their homes or build new ones.
Virgil Nelson, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Ventura County, said the group has helped nearly 40 other people rehabilitate their homes in the past two years.
In exchange for the work done on their homes, Nelson said, most beneficiaries must agree to perform work on their homes or other projects. In Henderson’s case, the 72-year-old Oak View man agreed to donate two of the three lots on which he has lived since 1968 to the nonprofit group.
Henderson was the first one to get a house “from the ground up” because securing the land is the toughest part of the program, Nelson said.
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