Since veteran money expert and broadcaster Clark Howard began volunteering for Habitat for Humanity in the early 1990s, he has hung doors, planted flowers, painted walls, stripped caulk, and laid foundation. You name it, he has probably done it.
Known for his prowess in personal finance and consumer tips, he wouldn’t exactly describe his do-it-yourself skills as scaling the same heights. To his wife Lane Howard’s frustration, he has never been particularly handy around the house.
“I’m just not any good. But I get here and everything’s broken down into teeny bite-size jobs. And you’re actually doing it,” Howard said Friday as he crossed the living room of his most recent Habitat home in the Brown Mills community in the southeast of Atlanta.
On Saturday, the 68-year-old was back in the Orchard Knob neighborhood to dedicate that home, his 100th, as well as two others he has helped sponsor and build. City and state officials, friends and family lined up to celebrate him reaching the milestone.
Howard has done much more than just get his hands dirty. He is known for his frugality (“I’m cheap. Just really thrifty,” he said) and was reluctant to reveal exactly how much money he has dedicated to the non-profit, which has a unique first-time homeowners program. Still, he said it runs into millions of dollars.
He has built homes in Phoenix, Arizona and traveled to Joplin, Missouri after a big tornado hit. He’s built homes in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the city of Valdosta in southern Georgia. The whole time, he’s raised homes with an army of volunteers to help low-income people realize their dream of home ownership.
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
According to Atlanta Habitat, 84 of his 100 homes are in Atlanta.
At the event on Saturday, Jonathan T.M. Reckford, chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity International, thanked Howard for using his platform to put people in new homes.
“This is so desperately needed at a time where Atlanta, like so many cities in the country, used to be affordable and is not so much anymore,” he said. “We have a housing crisis, and Clark and Lane, your leadership and showing what is possible when a community comes together, results in this.”
For a while, there was doubt whether Howard would be around to dedicate the new homes or summon the strength to work on his next one. Last year, he had heart surgery to fix a defective aortic valve he’s had since he was a teen but which more recently sapped his energy and left him short of breath.
“If I hadn’t had the surgery I’d be in an urn somewhere,” Howard said. “Here I am. I made it. And we start 101 in Tulsa in three weeks.”
Lane Howard said the prospect of heart surgery was “scary” and “miraculous.” Through it all, reaching house 100 was on their minds.
“His doctor had said it was a death sentence,” she said. “I think it was a great motivator for him to eat right, and get up to that point, have it done and we’re here. We’re so happy.”
After the event celebrating Howard, homeowners Tiffany Glass, Brittany Jackson and Zeroline Rogers were handed keys to the newly dedicated houses.
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
Jessica Martin is an earlier beneficiary of the program. She lives in a house on a corner lot just down the street from Clark’s newest home – the 95th home that the nationally syndicated radio host sponsored.
A native Atlantan who previously lived in the Mechanicsville neighborhood just south of downtown Atlanta, she is the third member of her family to live in a Habitat home after her sister and mother.
“Everyone wants to get a home. I don’t want to keep paying rent and inflation is crazy right now. I have a piece of the American pie for a fraction of the price,” she said.
Martin, who works for the custodial staff of Atlanta Public Schools and as a hairstylist and event planner on the side, said she earns about $35,000 a year.
Her payment is under $1000 a month, including homeowner’s insurance, for an interest-free mortgage, she said.
Under Atlanta Habitat’s first-time homebuyer program, prospective buyers learn how to do home repairs, take homeownership education classes and receive financial coaching – all to keep them in their homes.
They invest in so-called “sweat equity” by building their homes with volunteers and contractors. Martin said this has given her a deep connection to her new home.
The memories of building the home will stay with her forever, she said, not least because she knows people etched personal messages on the walls before they were painted over.
“Mostly all my walls have messages. People really poured love to me, and I gave it back. We’re forever friends. My mom says Clark is like an uncle now and that he’s my mom’s brother. I’m his honorary daughter,” Martin said.
On Friday, as Howard got ready for the main event, he was still working on the 100th house. He dipped his brush into a can of brown paint, putting the finishing touches on some shutters.
Howard said the event wasn’t about him. It was about the homeowners. But he said that people mistakenly believe that Habitat is giving something away.
“I’ve had one foreclosure over the years that they tried to keep secret from me,” he said. “We put in another family in that house. They picked up the payments. This is an opportunity for a step on the ladder. It’s not a gift. The gift is the opportunity.”
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