A few housing projects have been announced in Greene County with Heart of Iowa Habitat for Humanity.

Executive Director Jeff Lamoureux is happy to pick back up more housing projects and utilize their volunteers after primarily using contractors for projects last year, due to the pandemic closing that workforce off. There are four housing projects slated for this year, including a home in Grand Junction at 706 12th Street South, that is in need of new exterior paint, along with a home in Scranton at 701 Irving Street, with various exterior repairs, including siding. Lamoureux says they will go back to a home they previously worked on in 2019 installing railing inside of the residence for a homeowner with mobility limitations and this year will install ramps. The final project, if time allows, will be an exterior painting project for a home in Jefferson.

Lamoureux points out they typically use volunteers through church congregations, but he will accept anyone willing to help.

“We’re open for other volunteers. I mean if someone is not part of a congregation or hasn’t heard through their congregation and they want to help, but all means get ahold of us, we could use the help.” 

He notes that some of the COVID-19 precautions for volunteers includes encouraging masks for those not fully vaccinated, sanitizing tools and materials and shortening the work day, which started last year during the pandemic.

“Our work day would be from 8:30(am) to 3(pm)-ish and then we would break for lunch. We’ve eliminated that lunch break, just didn’t want to have to handle food. So we’ve eliminated that and we’re going to continue to do this year where our workdays are actually going to be from 8:30(am) to 1(pm) without that lunch break.”  

Anyone wanting to volunteer for the Helping Hands projects in Greene County, can contact the Jefferson office at 515-386-3093.