Roxbury High School students built a Habitat for Humanity house
Roxbury High School students built a Habitat for Humanity house
ROXBURY – With hammers, drills and blueprints in hand, a select group of Roxbury High School students have put a whole new twist on homework.
The fruits of their labor were unveiled Thursday when Morris Habitat for Humanity held a ceremony to dedicate the home built by 35 students during their final year in Frank Caccavale’s Structural Design and Fabrication course. The award-winning program has now completed two homes in their hometown.
“Today we celebrate what we can accomplish when we work together,” said Liz DeCoursey, CEO of Morris Habitat For Humanity, to an audience of volunteers and public officials that included U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who represents Roxbury in the 7th District.
The one-story, two-bedroom, one-bathroom home sits on a parceled lot on West Dewey Avenue in the Kenvil neighborhood. Like the previous student-built home, the new home was constructed in the school parking lot. Two modular sections were built separately, then trucked and lifted to the final location by crane. The sections were attached to a foundation and garage that was built on site.
“We’ve built it up over two years,” said Caccavale, whose program has received awards from the National Association of Home Builders, among others. “It just continues to be something that a lot of people enjoy participating in.”
“It’s a public-private partnership that works really well,” said Roxbury City Councilman Robert DeFillippo. “That’s what happens when government and community work together to create positive change.”
New life for mother from Dover
The house means a new life for Maria Londono and her 9-year-old son, Sebastian. Londono, a longtime Dover resident who works part-time as a waitress to make ends meet, was able to qualify for the program and has spent the past two years putting in the hundreds of hours of “muscle work” each customer is required to do, including volunteering at the ReStore in Randolph, a home improvement and furnishings store operated by Habitat.
“She has worked hard on the job site and in the ReStore alongside staff and volunteers, learning new skills and making new friends,” DeCoursey said.
“Thank you, thank you,” Londono said at the ceremony. “Habitat for Humanity has made my American dream come true.”
“Thank you for my new house,” added Sebastian, who will be attending fourth grade in the Roxbury school system. “I will always love this house because I get a big front yard where I can play soccer.”
Proud student knows “every screw, every nail and every nut”
Caccavale said high school graduates from the classes of 2023 and 2024 worked on the project, including Luke Scaraggi, now a sophomore studying aeronautics at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute in Florida.
“We built this house from the ground up,” Scaraggi said. “I probably know where every screw, nail and nut is in this house, at least the first half. It’s pretty neat to be part of history like that.”
“This is great,” added Rep. Mike Inganamort, who represents the 24th District. “They are using their own hands and tools and can see the impact of their work close to home.”
The class spent much of its school hours in May working on the construction site. Similar programs across the country often build homes entirely on site. But Caccavale said his class learned that logistically, it was “easier to move the house than the students do every day.”
The first house built by Caccavale’s class was completed and dedicated in November in the Landing neighborhood, after two years of construction at Roxbury High.
DeFilippo said the community donated the land for the new homes and contributed money for construction through its Open Space Trust Fund, representing an investment of more than $2 million in the program.
Additional costs were covered by local businesses contributing materials and advice, and even manufacturers such as GAF donating roofing materials.
“We are extremely proud of these projects,” DeFillippo said, noting that the project contributes to Roxbury’s state-mandated commitment to creating affordable housing.
Morris Habitat plans to build three more homes on the property, with the fourth also being built at Roxbury High School.
“We will start when the school year starts in a few weeks,” Caccavale said.
Affordable mortgage
Once they move in, Londono and her son will have to take out a conventional but affordable mortgage that only covers the cost of purchased materials and other items that can’t be covered by the army of volunteers Morris Habitat brings to each project. There is no profit included in the sale price and the mortgage becomes interest-free. The family’s monthly mortgage payments go into a revolving fund that is used to build more homes.
In addition, the mortgage is structured for each client so that monthly payments do not exceed 30% of the owner’s income.
The Londoners hope to move in next month after some finishing touches such as trimming and paving the driveway need to be completed before planning permission can be issued.
More: Morris Habitat for Humanity opens condominiums in Randolph, helping 12 families “put down roots”
Hundreds of habitats
Morris Habitat is part of the global nonprofit Habitat For Humanity International and has served more than 1,000 families in 68 New Jersey communities, according to the group. One of the most productive Habitat affiliates in the country, the organization has built 188 homes since 1985, preserved 431 for low-income and elderly residents and helped 373 families with housing solutions.
In June, the nonprofit organization inaugurated one of its largest projects to date: a 12-unit condominium complex in neighboring Randolph.
“Needle for nail, the work Habitat For Humanity does for our communities here in the Garden State and across the country is immeasurable,” Kean said. He praised the group for “helping make the American dream of homeownership a reality and having a positive and lasting impact on everyone involved in that process.”
More than 150,000 volunteers have supported the Morris subsidiary in its various programs, including the ReStore, which, according to Habitat, has diverted 17,588 tons of reusable materials from landfills and funded 36 homes.
William Westhoven is a local reporter at DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news in your community, Please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
E-mail: wwesthoven@www.dailyrecord.com
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