Historic Milestones
My Life with Morris Habitat for Humanity
Written by founding member Jean Nilson, November 2005
Twenty years is a milestone in a great adventure that I was privileged to be part of. Whatever I invested in time and energy in Morris Habitat for Humanity, I was repaid ten times in the satisfaction of enabling economic justice for our partners and community building for all of us.
Many years before Morris Habitat for Humanity was a reality, I was getting newsletters from Koinonia Partners in Americas, Georgia, an experimental community farm. Millard and Linda Fuller had taken up residence there, having given away their fortune, in order to assess their Christian commitment to social and economic justice. Since decent safe affordable housing was a major need in south Georgia, and the national housing strategy of building huge apartment houses with city housing authorities owning and managing the buildings, was a failure, Linda and Millard and others at Koinonia experimented with a radical plan for self-help housing, building with volunteers from the community, and no-interest financing of the owner-occupied houses.
After their successful start in Zaire (Congo), they returned to Georgia to set up an experimental project on Koinonia Farm that is still going. In a few years, publicity and fund raising were evident in NYC. I remember celebrating the first Jimmy Carter work week at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York with folks from my church in Chatham and learning that there was interest in forming a Habitat in the Morristown area!! Of course hearing President Carter was energizing and some of us worked on the project on the Lower East Side several times. But I pursued the rumor of a possible Morristown Habitat.
Soon Rev. James White of the Methodist Church, our continual supporter, Councilman and active layman “Butch” Barber, realtor Carlton Bruen, Architect Bill Parker, and others were meeting weekly to figure out what we were doing and how to do it. At our request, HQ in Americus sent up Ted Swisher, who is still a mainstay in Habitat International, with a slide show about organizing a local Habitat and examples of some around the country, including Paterson. I remember giving Ted a big hug after the meeting, letting him know that I had been waiting many years for Morristown to organize a Habitat and this was my dream come true.
In October of 1985, we formally incorporated. Since Nilson Insurance Agency had a computer, willing help and enthusiasm, and was centrally located in Morristown, our office became the Habitat office. I was the person who picked up the phone, kept minutes of the meetings, and explained to radio and newspaper audiences the mission of Morris Habitat for Humanity. But NOW, we had to find property, explain Habitat principles to churches and the public, get applications out to prospective partners, etc. Of course, we also had to have a project manager to oversee any construction. But we didn’t have a site! Lots of folks wanted to help, but finding a place to build was a major task. Some things never change!
The property on Garden Street, Morristown, was acquired (that’s another LONG story), and we started learning about how to select families. We set up the criteria, distributed applications to Morristown and Township families through churches and social agencies, screened the applications, found that there were more worthy applicants than we could possibly take, screened again, and came up with the four families we have on Garden Street. Our family selection manual was distributed nationally to Habitats.
Our site dedication in October 1986 was celebrated by then mayor David Manahan, many pastors, and other supporters. We introduced our first families to the community, cut the ribbons, and dug the first hole of four homes of Morris Habitat for Humanity at 11 Garden Street, Morristown.
We laid the foundations in spring, ready for our first building blitz. Millard Fuller and Habitat walkers from Portland, ME, to Atlanta (10,000 miles for the 10 years of building homes nationwide) joined us in Morristown. Others stayed in July to “blitz build” the framing and sheathing and roofs, encouraging us to finish the homes quickly. A service of celebration and song with Millard as the speaker was held at the Methodist Church. Newspaper coverage put Morris Habitat for Humanity into the minds and hearts of citizens of Morris County.