Community Corner

Interfaith Housing Group Talks to Rotary

Volunteers help rehab and build homes for low-income and homeless families.

The Bensalem Rotary Club learned about some local volunteer opportunities this week.

Chris Auth, executive director of Interfaith Housing Development Corporation of Bucks County, spoke to the business group at its weekly lunch meeting.

Interfaith is a partnership of 30 Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Quaker organizations created in 1987 to address the needs of the homeless and the lack of affordable housing within Bucks County.

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Their mission is to provide housing for sale or rent to low-income families and the homeless, and to assist them in becoming self-sufficient. They do this by rehabilitating "blighted" homes or occasionally building new ones.

Community members volunteer their time to help Interfaith rehab and build these homes.

Find out what's happening in Bensalemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Rotarian Steve Moran, former director of Public Safety, spoke in favor of Interfaith’s mission.

"Their initiative of removing abandoned or unsafe housing properties, and leveraging available governmental resources to build new homes is a real win-win proposition for the community, taxpayers and new homeowners. It is a unique opportunity where you have a very creditable non-profit putting their good reputation and labor into each project," Moran said.

"You have a non-profit organization remove community eye-sores, build new affordable housing, then sell it to homeowners, with the governmental grants used for the project being repaid back to the taxpayers when the property is resold."

Rotary President Joe Krug presented a commemorative pen to Auth.

For more information, visit Interfaith's website or contact Sandy Mullican at (215) 945-8630, ext 105.

 


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