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Habitat began building houses in Americus for needy people who could handle a small down payment plus about $65 monthly. An elderly couple named Lillie Mae and Jonas Bownes watched from their shack as their new house rose across the street. Mrs. Bownes frequently got up after midnight and peeked to make sure the unfinished five-room dwelling was still there. "I never dreamed I'd have a place like this, " Mrs. Bownes says. "It makes us feel like people."
Habitat grew slowly at first. In 1981 there were 15 projects in the United States, 11 overseas. Last year the numbers ballooned to 241 in North America and 50 in 25 countries abroad. By 1996, if things go as planned, Habitat will be operating in 2,000 U.S. cities and 60 countries.
Volunteers apply for jobs at a rate of 40 a month. Habitat's generous philosophy seems to tap a reservoir of good will. "I was looking for a way to measure myself in terms other than money," says a staffer who gave up an engineering career to direct fund raising at Habitat.
It is ten o'clock on a scorching July morning in Charlotte, N.C. Millard Fuller is pounding nails into a roof on one of 14 houses rising simultaneously.
Around him, 350 volunteer builders, many of them veteran Habitat workers bused in from out of town, are hammering, drilling, fitting windows — building a neighborhood.
"Who's paying for all this?" a passer-by asks.
"Nobody," Millard replies.
The man looks dubious. "Folks don't do this sort of thing for nothing."
"It's worse than that," Millard says cheerfully. "They paid to come."
"You get a sense of joy in this word," says Millard after a long day on the roof." The most dynamic people I know are concerned about something beyond themselves. We're doing something that makes a real difference. It won't fade away next week or next month. Every house is a permanent blessing — for builder and buyer both."
