Crafting Communities: Habitat for Humanity's Susquehanna Saga with Phyliss Mosca

Rich Bennett 0:00
I had somebody submit a article to me about this. There was a build that I think it was three groups, three women's groups did. But I've gotten press releases from this group forever, which is awesome because they do great work and it's like, okay, I got to get them on the podcast, not just because they're here locally, but this is something that is throughout the nation and it's great. So I have Phyllis Mosque on, who is a Habitat for Humanity Susquehanna. I get that right. 

Phyliss Mosca 0:35
Yes, you did. 

Rich Bennett 0:36
Okay. But how big is actually Habitat for Humanity? Its name? Is it nationwide or is that international? 

Phyliss Mosca 0:42
International, really? It is. It is, yes. So, yeah, they build worldwide. 

Rich Bennett 0:49
I did not realize. 

Phyliss Mosca 0:50
Yeah. You know, I wish I knew. I could tell you right now the year that Habitat International was started. But I don't know that. Right. But it was started in Americus, Georgia, and started as an answer to affordable housing. It was on a farm called Koinonia Farms. It's very interesting. And it was meant as a reflection, which is what our mission still to this day is a reflection of God's love. And it was during a time of 

segregation. Right. And the farm was set up to bring ownership, affordable home ownership, land ownership to blacks and whites together. And so they started this farm and it was quite controversial, it seems, back then. And they right in the south there and they started this farm and it was spun out of that was habitat where it was affordable homeownership. And the purpose was to reflect God's love. And now it's to put God's love into action, building affordable homes. But yes, so we are. Axia, Christian ministry, but we don't prostitute eyes. We don't there's no requirement. Right, Right. But that's our why and that's important to remember is why we do this. Right. And so, yeah, it's worldwide, but our affiliate, our affiliate covers Harford and Cecil Counties. And so that's where we build. 

Rich Bennett 2:10
Was in Baltimore County. 

Phyliss Mosca 2:12
There is, yes. Okay. I don't remember the exact number of affiliates. I'm not going to guess right now a lot, but it's a lot in half. Even in Maryland. Yeah. So there are quite a few in Maryland and it's regional. So, you know, one for Baltimore City and Baltimore County and then PG County. There's Metro, Maryland and Chesapeake and lots of other ones. 

Rich Bennett 2:30
Do you guys ever get together and do like big projects? 

Phyliss Mosca 2:33
We've gotten. Together with a. Couple of the affiliates more for. Shared knowledge. That's one of the benefits. I love that. I'm always peeking on other Habitat's Web sites and what they're doing, and then I reach out to them nationwide. And I learnt we learned from each other and we're not competitive because so. We. Stay in our county. So our sponsors are donors are primarily from Hartford in Cecil County. I mean, I. Can't stop. Someone if they're from another county and they want to build up here or support up here. But I don't intentionally go out and try and seek them out. 

Rich Bennett 3:08
Okay. 

Phyliss Mosca 3:09
So we do try to stick to our areas. And this is our area and we love it. And there's plenty to do. Here. So yeah. 

Rich Bennett 3:15
So when did Habitat for Humanity Susquehanna actually start? 

Phyliss Mosca 3:18
30 years ago. Yeah. We're celebrating the 30th, our 30th anniversary. So the. Susquehanna? Yeah, 30 years. And we're on 124 homes. Yeah. We've built or rehabbed. Yes, 124 homes. 

Rich Bennett 3:34
In 30 years. 

Phyliss Mosca 3:35
In 30 years. Wow. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 3:37
Yeah, That's amazing. 

Phyliss Mosca 3:39
And I just got the number yesterday. We've done again. I wish I would remember exactly, but this was. Not, I don't think, the topic, but I'll just tell you, like close to six. Hundred repairs in the Hartford in Cecil County area. Wow. And I think it's for well over 300 families. So we do low income repairs, too. Okay. For people who own their homes. But can't afford to keep them up. So we have a lot it's not age restrictive at all. 

Rich Bennett 4:06
Right. 

Phyliss Mosca 4:07
But we have a lot of elderly. Who bought their homes 30, 40 years. Ago and are now living on a fixed. Income. And can't afford to keep them up. We see. Some. Third world conditions. With that, I will say, are you it's really it's really devastatingly heartbreaking. So we do what are called critical repairs. A lot of. Elderly and veterans are. In the program. They have to own their home. And they the interest. I for me personally, I love that it's a hand up. Through all our programs. It's not a handout. It really changes lives by providing that little bit of help that lift out of the poverty. And the same is true with our repairs. So they don't pay. They can't pay much into it. But we do some, you know, significant repairs on their homes and and they get to live in the there's a motto from habitat that says decent and affordable is what the goal is. So whether it be rehab rehabs, new builds or repairs to live in decent and affordable housing. 

Rich Bennett 5:14
I didn't realize that you guys hope that people that needed repairs. 

Phyliss Mosca 5:18
Yeah, I love sharing that because we all know people in that situation. Right, Right. So I love sharing that. 

Rich Bennett 5:26
I thought the only thing you guys did was actually build new homes. I mean, no, you rehab. Yeah, which is good because that's like one of my biggest pet peeves is you always see new homes going up. But meanwhile, the old ones are just sitting there not being sold. 

Phyliss Mosca 5:39
Yeah, yeah, in disrepair. 

Rich Bennett 5:41
But a lot of these older homes seem to last longer. 

Phyliss Mosca 5:45
Yeah, absolutely right. Wow. So we do it really comes down. To what is in the price range because we always make the sale of the home affordable. 

Rich Bennett 5:57
For our. 

Phyliss Mosca 5:57
Buyers. So it's based on what they earn and they never pay more than three times their income, so they never pay more than 30% of their income in monthly payments. Which is really, if you. Think about it, if you've purchased a home, that's what the typical model. Was. Yeah, you didn't want. To be strapped, right? So that you're living for your home and it's a the number one way to break that generational cycle of poverty. Is to. Own your own home. 

Rich Bennett 6:29
Oh yeah. 

Phyliss Mosca 6:30
There's all sorts of amazing benefits of that, which I could get on a long soapbox on, but I will spare you of that. And you can ask specifics, but it's like. 

Rich Bennett 6:38
Oh, that's all right. 

Phyliss Mosca 6:39
Oh, hey, the it really helps every improves. I don't like to just say helps. It really. Improves. Every aspect of a person's life. So, so affordable, decent homeownership improves mental health outcomes, physical health outcomes, poverty. It improves educational outcomes because all of our families have to have an income. So they need to be working to pay. Back this affordable mortgage. Right. But if you need to work two jobs, over 70% of our home buyers are single. Mothers really have to work two jobs just to pay their rent. Then I don't it doesn't matter how good the teachers or the school is. If the kids are alone at night and there's no one to help them, educational outcomes will go down, right? So it allows a parent to work a single job and to be able to pay back an affordable mortgage and be there for their kids. And just that stability provides amazing health outcomes and financial security outcomes. 

Rich Bennett 7:50
I'm glad you said that because for the longest time and I think other people thought this, I thought with Habitat for Humanity, when you guys present to buy a house, I always, always do. Nick. 

Phyliss Mosca 8:03
You just spoke. The number one misconception. And so I've been with the organization over six years. It's become my soapbox. I go everywhere and talk to everyone, letting everybody know that is the number one worldwide misconception. That was my misconception. So. So before Habitat, I worked in for profit, very senior management, marketing and management of organizations and always volunteered with nonprofits. Lots of homeless work starting in New York City, where I'm from in northern New Jersey. And then down here when we moved here. Right, and never volunteered. Jim Acosta I'm a court appointed special advocate. I love just people. I have this bleeding heart compassion for people, but to help. Them. Yeah, right. Not to like just enable. Right. If I can help, I want to help. And so but I had never volunteered for Habitat. And when I took a grant writing class after I decided to leave the for profit world and took a grant writing class and met someone that worked for the organization and said you should really apply, you'd be great in this donor relationship. And I was Habitat. Don't they give away homes like the Extreme Home Makeover? Like you move that bus and you get dumped with this beautiful free home. And she was. Like. So gracious. And she said. Oh, why don't you look it up and come back next week the class. And let me know what you think. And when I found out it was a. Complete. 180 opposite. So but that is I was not alone. That's why I to my soapbox to let people know we don't give homes away. 

Rich Bennett 9:39
Which is a good thing because some people aren't really learning responsive. 

Phyliss Mosca 9:42
They aren't learning. And the I feel like everybody, including myself, if I didn't have my husband, I my home would be in disrepair or I'd need a lot of money to. Keep it up. Right. So I this model is amazing. So they pay a small down payment, okay? They have to qualify for their mortgage. It's a difficult qualification process, probably more difficult than the traditional run rate, not mortgage qualification. Once they qualify and if they don't qualify because of their credit or whatever, we work with them as long as it takes to clean up their credit with them. Yeah, if they're willing to put in the work, we're willing to do it with them. It's for free. And then once they qualify, they get 0% financing. So now they we are the mortgage lender. 0%. So they now qualify for about four times or so. Their income, which qualifies them for more of a mortgage, and they never pay more than 30% of their income towards the mortgage. And it's a 30 year mortgage. They pay it back. And in the process they have to put in 250. We call them sweat equity hours, and it's volunteering on their home or someone else's home. So they're learning. How to repair their home. They're learning spackling and drywall and plumbing. And you know, how to put up a shingle and how to repair this. And we hire professional. So we use all volunteers. We have professionals as site. Supervisors. And then we hire professional tradespeople because we don't want we don't even want site supervisors who are professional construction people. You hire professionals, right? Right. So for electrical and plumbing and those sort of things. 

Rich Bennett 11:29
Well, I was going to say you have to anyways because you got to have the permits. 

Phyliss Mosca 11:32
Yes. So we go through all of the permit. Process that everybody else goes through so they're safe and decent and affordable. And then. So these. Homebuyers are learning how to take care of their home. And there's a vested effort into it. Okay. And so we've seen whole communities be transformed that were rental. We have a lot in very, you know, the poorer communities in our county where they were all rentals and they were just rundown and there was no one caring for and there was a lot of crime. And we have several homes on one block that are now habitat homes. And the whole block is safer and it looks better. And wow, it's just amazing what homeownership can do. You take pride in your property and you're paying this back. 

Rich Bennett 12:17
So it's like a domino effect to your area. If people see that block of nice homes, are people taking care of them? 

Phyliss Mosca 12:24
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 12:25
Then hopefully they're doing starting to do the same. 

Phyliss Mosca 12:27
Yeah. Yeah. You ever hear about the broken windshield theory that the mayor up in New York City really believed by? And he said that if you repair a car sitting on the side of the road that's got a broken windshield and you don't let it sit in disarray and just let every just let it go, people see that even little crimes, quote unquote, are important. And you're not just settling for those. You're going to be on them. Right. And so bigger crimes and bigger issues are not left. And, you know, so it's important to see that we're all invested in the community. And so having people own their homes. Really. Makes a difference. And it helps. Everyone in. The counties home values rise home. We have people and you have taxpayers now paying into it. And, you know, so. 

Rich Bennett 13:23
And that's the other thing, like the big misconception, if a home is donated, what's the value of that? 

Phyliss Mosca 13:28
Huh? Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not donated. That's right. Sure. Yes. 

Rich Bennett 13:31
It's not going to drive it. Yes, yes. 

Phyliss Mosca 13:34
Yes, absolutely. No, it's not. Wow. And we have. A real. Value for the home. So even if they can't afford the true cost. Of we can build. About a brick on average, we build typically three bedroom, one and a half bath homes because that's the holds the biggest resale value. And so these home buyers can't flip their home and make a profit. So they they build equity over time as they pay the mortgage back. 

Rich Bennett 14:04
Okay. 

Phyliss Mosca 14:04
And if and I don't know of any in my six years, six plus years, they decide I don't want this home anymore and I want to sell it. Habitat has a first right to purchase it back. So. 

Rich Bennett 14:16
All right. So hold the. 

Phyliss Mosca 14:17
Mortgage. Yes. And and that protects the donors money. So it stays in a habitat. It's not going to a profit for the you can't flip it and make a profit. So we could typically build a three bedroom, one and a half bath home, including land for about two 220,000. And, you know, that's significantly below the average in the county, right? Yeah. So there's immediate equity there. Honestly, for us, that's high. pre-COVID, we were building. These same homes for about 180. Thousand. But these costs have risen so much. So we have to raise about $40,000 more per home to get through the building process. But then if they were to sell, we get the first right, we buy it back. And depending on how long they've been there, they get a little bit of equity. And if they haven't been there long enough, we keep all the equity and then it goes back and it gets resold to another habitat family. Okay. 

Rich Bennett 15:16
What about after they pay off the house? 

Phyliss Mosca 15:18
It's theirs that's there. It's there. 

Rich Bennett 15:20
So they want to sell it. 

Phyliss Mosca 15:21
If they want to sell it, it's theirs. It's of course. 

Rich Bennett 15:24
It's a 30 year mortgage. Yeah. They haven't had it. 

Phyliss Mosca 15:26
Yeah, we are close. We are very close. I interviewed the first. Homebuyer, Marsha, her name was, and she is close to buying it, paying it off. So it started 30 years ago. But the first. Home, I don't know exactly. Maybe it took two years to build. Because it was all volunteers. It was started from APG FCU. It was one of our founders is still. Alive and. He worked at APG and he was part of the board at APG, FCU and really wanted to 

do something to help with the homes. And so it was all volunteer based in the beginning. 

Rich Bennett 16:03
So how do you guys go about finding volunteers? Because you I mean, I'm sure somebody just can't walk off the street and say, I want to do it. I want to volunteer because you got to know what you're doing. First of all. 

Phyliss Mosca 16:17
Well, that's. Interesting to say. So anybody can build if you're 16 or older on the build site. They're really on our Web site. There's a simple process. You go on, you click, I want to volunteer for construction. If you're the first time you go through sort of this just simple form and you watch a safety video and then you sign a release that you know what you're you know what you're doing. Yeah. And we invite individuals out. We invite businesses to do it as a team building sponsored build day. It's a you feel fantastic after doing it. Yeah. And but even individuals can come out and then they are taught we have these professionals on site site supervisors that teach everything you need to know right there. We provide all the tools, we all the knowledge they oversee what you're doing. And it's amazing how much I've learned every time I build or volunteer and people I've never really met. Someone that said that was a horrible experience or I didn't really enjoy that. It's always like, that was amazing. When can I come back? You know? So it's a great feeling. And then to see the homebuyer. That you either helped finance and. Paid for. Or helped build or both, that's even better, right? When an organization or an individual will donate financially and then donate their time. It feels so great. When they finally close on their home, they get their mortgage, they get the keys. We do a dedication and you see this house start at nothing. And then it's finished. And they're they're now able to purchase. 

Rich Bennett 17:50
So on average, how long does it take to build a house? 

Phyliss Mosca 17:53
We try to build homes. In about four months. So four months? Yeah. Yeah. But we've been recently we typically. Build our our preference is to build something called the Shotgun Ranch, which is one story you can see from the front of the house to the back of the. House. It's straight through as a hallway. Okay. And then on the sides are all the rooms. And so it's a it's on a slab. There's not a there's not a basement. There's sometimes a crawl space, but and then we build it. And that, on average, takes about four months. If we have been building a lot and have. Degrees. And there's been some requirements or even just the size, we built their first community upon Stokes and it's. 

Rich Bennett 18:39
Your first. 

Phyliss Mosca 18:39
Community of seven homes, seven homes, several years. There's duplexes side by side attached homes that were required to look like part of the historical district. So it's. Two story. And they're. Side by side. And they're beautiful and they were more expensive to build because two stories. Mark Well, right. And it took longer. There was there was it took longer to build those homes. But we have. Three duplexes. There and one. Single. Family aging in place home, which is another program we do where we help people to be able to stay in their home. There's a I don't mean to be dramatic, but sort of a crisis of aging in our you know, and if you, you know, need care, then it's very expensive. And so we do something called aging in place. This woman that purchased at home was in her sixties and single woman. We built a one story, I believe it, just a two bedroom home because she's alone and she will We adapted it. She's very healthy and stable now, but we adapted it that if she, you know, needs a wheelchair walker, she could get by and get through and stay in that home as she ages in place. 

Rich Bennett 20:09
Wow. 

Phyliss Mosca 20:10
So it's a great process. It's a big sort of buzz word nationwide to find ways to help people age in place. And this is one of them. 

Rich Bennett 20:19
Yeah, because it's expensive. Yeah. To go to an assisted living. 

Phyliss Mosca 20:24
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 20:24
You're talking about some of these places. It's more than a mortgage. 

Phyliss Mosca 20:27
Yeah. Up significantly. 

Rich Bennett 20:29
Yes. 

Phyliss Mosca 20:30
Yeah. And if you need any. Kind of care. Really care. Not just you're living. There and you get to eat meals with them, but any kind of care. You can be talking 10,000 plus a month. 

Rich Bennett 20:41
Hmm. 

Phyliss Mosca 20:42
Yeah. So it's a it's a it's a great. You know, to be able to have a program. It's called Aging in Place. And yet we do a lot we do as much as we. Can here, but that's a term that's used not just by habitat, but it's there are models that are trying to build communities that allow people to do that. And so our first home in that our first community was an aging place home. And she's. Doing great. Her home is beautiful and she takes such pride in it and really my job. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 21:11
So actually we something like that with the aging in place saying because you mentioned like the medical care do you guys work with any. No, no. Whether it be doctor's offices or anything for that. 

Phyliss Mosca 21:24
We had a program We're we're we're done with it now. It was called Capable but we it finished it was a several year program that we were part of. And I believe Johns Hopkins was with part of it. And it was to. Take. Those parts. We were the housing piece, right, some physical housing piece. And then there were like nurses and nurse practitioners that would kind of come in and check on these people and and provide for their care and then sort of physical therapy to help them. And it was studied over a several year period to see the effectiveness of it. And I believe. At this time it's not really my area, but I believe we're looking into doing something similar. Like that again. Where it's sort of inclusive. But that's a really good question because. 

Rich Bennett 22:07
I'm sure the need for with. 

Phyliss Mosca 22:09
A lot of that too. Yeah, Yeah, it did. I did. But I believe our program, several year program ended either at the very beginning of COVID or prior or so. But yeah. It's, it's, it's a tremendous need and it's a huge blessing to be able to do that in your own. Home. A lot of people don't want to leave their home. They just don't have a choice. Because even if they could get care in. The ability. To get through their doorways, get through that, reach their countertops, if they're in a walker or a wheelchair and or. 

Rich Bennett 22:40
Even the tub. 

Phyliss Mosca 22:40
Yeah, the tubs. We've done. Many of those where. We've taken tubs out the. Walking. Yup. Yeah, it's awesome. 

Rich Bennett 22:47
Maybe I am getting old because I keep looking at thinking about getting Well, that's awesome. 

Phyliss Mosca 22:51
I don't have to step over that journey right there. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Really neat, right? Yeah, That. 

Rich Bennett 22:59
Yeah. I didn't realize you guys did. That is awesome. 

Phyliss Mosca 23:02
We do a lot. We also do financial literacy classes. I had my children take them during COVID, so they're free to anyone in the community, anyone that lives in Harford or C, so counties there. Now, since COVID, that's a good thing. I believe they're offered online now. They offer them, I. Believe, monthly. Where it's financial. I think it's five classes where you learn about credit and the importance of credit and balancing your checkbook and how to qualify for a mortgage and. All of these things that like I feel like should be taught in high school. Yeah. And like, right. And so I was like, Hey, kids. They were my son was in high school, my daughter was in. College at the time. I was like, You're just sitting home like the rest of us. Why don't you take some of these classes? And so I took a. Few of them and it was. Eye opening. 

Rich Bennett 23:46
Oh, yeah. Well, now they're told. Well, who has a checkbook nowadays? Yeah, your checkbook may not be physically right. 

Phyliss Mosca 23:54
You better balance it, but you better know it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And they have it on their phones. Everyone now, like, it's like they could check their balance every day. But did you know, did you make. Sure that what is coming out of your. Account, if you're using your. Debit card constantly, is it accurate? Yeah. Are you looking at that? You know, if you're not. Something could be going on and you're not even aware of it. Right. 

Rich Bennett 24:16
Exactly. 

Phyliss Mosca 24:17
And so, yeah, we teach all of that and our homebuyers are required to do those classes too. So that's another thing. Now they know how to budget. How to maintain that budget. How to sustain. It. Right. So these are powerful. Tools that I, I, I. Really wish. Everyone had to do it, right. Yeah. To know how to do a. Basic you know, I learned how to put on siding. I volunteer with my church a week ago. My husband and I my husband is really handy, but like. He was like, that's really neat. I didn't learn. That about the cut out and crimping. It was just interesting and I was like, I had no idea the anxiety I did the week prior. One of the. I had a follow up, which I think we're going to talk about my women build this One of my faith and women build are my two favorite things. But I invited for the first time the team leaders to come out and build this. These are some go getters and I built with them. 

Rich Bennett 25:11
This couple build. 

Phyliss Mosca 25:13
For the women built. Okay, But I. Invited them back out just a few weeks ago. The women build wrapped up in early June and I just invited them out in July. And we built together the team leaders and I, and we started with siding and it was amazing. I learned a ton and then the following week came out and volunteered again with my church and we worked on siding and it was awesome and it was done, but pretty much by the time we got done. So wow, so awesome. 

Rich Bennett 25:37
So with that, with the women build how many? Because there was just groups of women, right? Didn't you do that? Almost like a competition. 

Phyliss Mosca 25:44
It is a competition. It is a. Competition. Okay. And they get very healthily. Competitive, right? So they so the way this. Works is about I. Got I'm. Almost at the organization seven years and six years ago nationwide habitat affiliates at want to participate do something called a women build and it's typically been held around Mother's Day and so different levels of involve movement and sophistication to how they do it based on the affiliate with the affiliate that that has Susquehanna affiliate at the time. We just invite. Women to come out and build. And during that time and you know, because there's not this sort of this thought that it's, you know, less women come out and volunteer. But to say that. Right. Yeah. So as a way to. Encourage women to come out and that was great. And then we applied for a grant with Lowe's that used to support women build, and that was it. And I thought, there's so much more we can do with this. And there was another person working with that time, and she really encouraged it and she said, we, I came up with the idea to have teams compete, to fundraise women led teams. So men can participate too, but they can't lead a team, Right. 

Rich Bennett 27:02
Okay. 

Phyliss Mosca 27:02
And they fundraise for one month online. Think of like a go fund me. And they have they can see a leaderboard of who's in right. And it's very it becomes very competitive that day. And it ran that way. It ran for 30 days from April 1st to April 30th. And then the team, which raised the most in those 30 days by sharing it's simple to you just share your page on social media or email. It's really simple. It's so simple. That although this woman is a huge go getter, we had a new woman team, Women build team come this year for the first time join us and they came in second place. That's how amazing they did. And they shared how easy it was. To share. This. And it just goes viral. The power of sharing it. Right? So ten teams compete. They fundraise in the month of April and then they're invited out to private build days. And I make it a lot of fun. I get lunch donated, get T-shirts made, I give the team leaders crowns and we have goofy pictures and we just have a lot of fun of it and get a lot of work done. Our site supervisors love these women build teams because they're go getters. If they're out there and they're invested. And each year we've raised more money. It's our sixth year. 

Although two of the years during COVID, we could not welcome volunteers. So it was we just still fundraise. They are amazing. It took a step back, the fundraising a little bit, of course, because we were in the middle of a pandemic and then last year we came back and was our first year in two prior years and we were able to build together. And then this year they blew it out of the water. I was so impressed with what they did. Yeah. So. 

Rich Bennett 29:00
So when somebody moves into that house, are you going to have them come out? 

Phyliss Mosca 29:05
Oh, they're always invited. So yeah, we always invite people that. Volunteer on. The homes or. Contribute to it like a sponsor ship to come out and see the dedication. And it's powerful. My the last dedication was the last home in the community that I shared up and having a grace. And several of the women build team participants, teams, participants came up to it and it was just a day of tears. And it. Was amazing. And yeah, so that was amazing. And so they get invited out and they just get to see this whole process through to completion. 

Rich Bennett 29:46
That's awesome. 

Phyliss Mosca 29:47
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:48
God, yeah. When I, when I got the press release and I saw that, I this is simply amazing. This is because I've, we've talked a bit with the lines. We've talked about, you know, doing the unfortunate we have some older members Yeah but we've talked about doing it and then with our Leos which is the young lions. Yeah. But you got to be 16. 

Phyliss Mosca 30:12
16 to build on the site. 

Rich Bennett 30:13
Yes. But they can still help fundraise. 

Phyliss Mosca 30:17
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:18
Then of course now we have to rebuild the club. 

Phyliss Mosca 30:21
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:21
Because we're the only Leo club around now. 

Phyliss Mosca 30:24
Oh yeah. I did not know that. 

Rich Bennett 30:27
Yeah, unfortunately. But that's all right. I'd like to challenge. 

Phyliss Mosca 30:30
Yeah, Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:32
Now, you mentioned so with because you're. We're talking about building new homes. Yeah, but what about old homes that are sitting abandoned? Do you guys do anything with them? 

Phyliss Mosca 30:42
So right now we have two. Rehabs I don't know about abandoned. I can't speak to that. 

Rich Bennett 30:46
But the rehab, somebody lives it. 

Phyliss Mosca 30:48
Yeah, well, they sold it, so. So they're selling it. We buy it. 

Rich Bennett 30:52
Oh. 

Phyliss Mosca 30:53
And then we rehab it. If the numbers make sense, they can buy it for the right price. We had our rehab. Sometimes it really we don't have a preference one way or another or whatever makes sense. And so right now we have two rehabs going on in Aberdeen and they will be the site of my faith build coming up. I am Mountain Christian just made a very generous donation to us through rate program and I run the Faith Relations Committee. And so our we're channel I guess there's no committee it's. Me and. And so the but I handle all the faith relations and do appeals for that. And so the challenge will be for other churches and faith members to double what Mt. Christian gave. And so that's my goal. We've got a lot of. Churches in these counties, right. So we can do it right. And so so by point in sharing that really was that there's so many ways to get involved. But on in Aberdeen, we now have two rehabs coming after several years of only new builds and we're in the middle of one of them. And so we'll help the money that we raised through this, which will run through the end of the year, will be used on both of those homes. And depending on when we invite the faith communities to come out to build also on them, they will either build on the one that's in the process now or the one coming up. So okay, yeah. So we do do rehabs. We've had, you know, not a lot of them, but we've had homes that donated that were just really rundown. We've had a townhome, donated a doctor, donated it last year or a year or two ago and you know, is run rundown. He probably was renting it right And so you get a tax write off for that in a and then you get to really that's a benefit right like yeah you're blessing this community and so then then they we go in and rehab it and sell it back to someone else. 

Rich Bennett 32:50
Okay. 

Phyliss Mosca 32:51
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 32:52
So with the Wow. Because I mean. 

Phyliss Mosca 32:56
A lot right. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, okay, let me think about this. Wait a second. What you mean don't just give homes away? That was my thought. Move that bus. 

Rich Bennett 33:04
Yeah, Which I'm glad to hear, but I'm still shocked. It was 120 homes in 30 years. 

Phyliss Mosca 33:09
124. Everyone counts, right? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 33:14
So with the because and we've all you always hear it takes a village so who are some of your biggest supporters, sponsors and volunteers that help you guys out so far. 

Phyliss Mosca 33:28
Yeah. So you know. 

Rich Bennett 33:29
I know you can't name them all. 

Phyliss Mosca 33:31
But yeah, I definitely can. I would want to preface it with I if I leave anyone off, it's not at all intention, right? Because every single one is so valuable to us. But within the faith community, our biggest supporters have been Baylor United Methodist Church. It's something called a panel billed every year. It's now called Hammers. Up. And they donate. It was $10,000. And now it's more to do that where we bring out all the materials to the build site. And anyone, any organization can do this right where we bring out all the materials to their site or on our site build site and they build the panels for the hall for a home. And then those panels are transported to the job site. If we're done it, we do it at Bel-Air United Methodist Church parking lot, and St Margaret's in Bel-Air does the same thing as well. So I don't want to leave these. 

Rich Bennett 34:21
Panels already insulated and everything. 

Phyliss Mosca 34:23
They are ready. You know what? I'm not sure. If they're insulated. I have never seen them that way. I think we insulate on site. Okay. I think we move. Them just built just quote unquote. Okay. They build the panels and it's a whole group that comes out to do it at St Margaret's in Bel Air. And Bel-Air United Methodist Church each year. And then they get moved to the home and they get to write blessings or words of encouragement on those walls that will be part of the home going forward. And then they usually participate. Bel-Air United Methodist Church and St Margaret's both have a lot of volunteers that out and do lots of things. So in the faith they have been our most consistent, very strong financial and volunteer support, right? Faith communities. But we have lots of them. I mean, I just mentioned Mountain just yeah, a $10,000 donation for us for this through their their they call the campaign is called explosions of good and they're. Looking to commit. You know pockets of money and support to different we have great nonprofits here so they're doing that and we were one of them and we're grateful for that. We just had a build team from Women. Bill. There was a community called Word of Faith International Outreach in Aberdeen. Okay? I had never been involved before. I got involved with them through a Christmas event they do every year last year, and there was a lot of interest and so they led a women build team and amazingly, they raised $6,000 in employees. So that was awesome. Just shocking. I'm using. But there's lots of churches, so that sort of covers the churches. And I again, if I left anyone out, I'm sorry, there are lots of them and they all matter big and small, but and businesses, oh gosh, they run the gamut. We Hartford Mutual has been a long time supporter, NPG, FCU, long time supporter. Consistently we have Alan Myers has gotten involved with women build the last several years. Huge. Construction company roads and stuff and they do a women build pretty much every year. We have b b, B and M, clean B and cabinetry. Has women been a women build team since the beginning? Brenda Betts, who owns it, is an amazing supporter and we're grateful for her. She does. Women build every year and so we have a lot of great business support. We're always looking for more with an extra 40. Thousand to raise. For every. Single home. It's it adds up. So yeah. So yeah. Mack When has there a financial planner group and they have won the fundraising competition the last three years in a row and they just kill it. 

Rich Bennett 37:19
They pulled a hat trick. 

Phyliss Mosca 37:21
They are trapped there you go. Hat trick. Yeah. Now almost nine. Thousand dollars they raised. And I think we're going to exceed that because they this year as an organization have agreed to match all of their their employee donations to women build as long as they submit it. And so. Keep those donations coming, let. It or know they are matching them. So, yeah, we're. 

Rich Bennett 37:43
You know, that's the one great thing about this county. You see a lot of business, not just businesses, but people giving back. 

Phyliss Mosca 37:52
Absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 37:53
Not afraid to get out there and get scraped up or whatever. Yeah, You're seeing businesses more and more donate either monetary goods. Yeah. Volunteering. Yeah. Which I think a lot of people don't realize how far volunteering goes. 

Phyliss Mosca 38:16
Because. 

Rich Bennett 38:16
There's a lot of times where you're struggling because you can't find volunteers. 

Phyliss Mosca 38:19
Absolutely. And COVID really hurt the volunteers, right? So we had gosh, again, I'm not the volunteer coordinator, but probably over 1000 to 1500 volunteers a year. And it has really slowed since COVID. They are coming. Back. They are very loyal. We have a core group of volunteers. We call them the core. And so they come out every Wednesday. They could practically build a home by themselves at this point. Many of them are retired professionals who really love the work and come out and build every week. So Volunteering helps us keep that cost down. If we had to pay everybody at least minimum wage, which is close to 15, I think now an hour to build these homes, those costs would not be where they are. They would at least be where probably the. Averages may be. And so it helps keep the costs down. We have lots of in-kind donors that donate materials, donate just different things that will help us build the home we have a restore. Do you know I. 

Rich Bennett 39:21
Was going to ask you about that because when somebody moves into the home, is the home furnished? 

Phyliss Mosca 39:27
No, it's not. It is not. Yeah, but. 

Rich Bennett 39:30
We know of a good place where they can get furniture. 

Phyliss Mosca 39:32
Yeah, absolutely. And it. Also supports the. Cause. 

Rich Bennett 39:35
Which I was going to be a question to what are you guys doing to raise money. So you have Aberdeen Restore. 

Phyliss Mosca 39:40
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:41
Yes Which is a freaking amazing. Yes. 

Phyliss Mosca 39:45
Good description. It really is. It's like I. 

Rich Bennett 39:48
Can't keep my wife off of your sight. 

Phyliss Mosca 39:51
I believe it. And it's. They do an amazing job. Yeah, amazing job. John and Adam are the managers there, but they are amazing. All of staff and, the volunteers. We have amazing volunteers and they do a great job on social media. They make it a lot of fun. They highlight what's coming up and they really make it a lot of fun. And so we get new items donated continually, right from individuals. We also pick up you can schedule a pickup online, they'll come pick up the merchandise it you can use it on your taxes. You and your accountant for women. Hold up. Yeah, we pick it up. 

Rich Bennett 40:31
Oh, okay. I thought you meant Aberdeen Restore. Come to your house and pick stuff up. 

Phyliss Mosca 40:35
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 40:36
Well, in that way. 

Phyliss Mosca 40:37
Yeah, we do. We do. Yes, you can schedule that all online. 

Rich Bennett 40:41
But you don't. People can't donate just household goods and stuff like that, right? It's got to be like furniture. 

Phyliss Mosca 40:47
Well, it's furniture. It's appliances. It could be lighting, it could be lamps. We don't take the anything in your home except clothing. We don't take beds, bed mattresses. 

Rich Bennett 41:00
Which makes sense. 

Phyliss Mosca 41:01
We don't take we don't do like bedding and things like that. But we you know, we. 

Rich Bennett 41:05
Have frames headboards. 

Phyliss Mosca 41:06
For absolutely. Pictures that are on your wall that you no longer want lighting, supplies, tools. 

Rich Bennett 41:15
Anything, microwaves. 

Phyliss Mosca 41:17
Yeah, I do. Yeah, we we do. We take all of that. 

Rich Bennett 41:20
Not TVs. 

Phyliss Mosca 41:21
No TVs. We usually don't take the big back ones like people, right? We want TV. Yeah. And I don't think it's mostly on the site. It'll tell you what we don't. Okay. But like, there was a lot of those. Cabinets that fit those big backed the old your greens, right? Yeah. And nobody wants them anymore. So we don't take them. Right. So but it's all on our website and you. 

Rich Bennett 41:44
Guys will come and pick them up. 

Phyliss Mosca 41:45
We'll come and pick it up. 

Rich Bennett 41:46
I never knew that. 

Phyliss Mosca 41:47
Yes. Is that. Amazing. Yeah. Huge. Huge. And sometimes. Depending on how busy we are, could be a week or two before we can get out to you, but. Well, they'll come out and pick it up and they do a great job and then all of the proceeds. So then we sell that back out to the public for a fraction of the value. Very good prices and all of the money that comes from that, the profits after paying rent and whatever goes right back into building homes or repairing the homes. And so but. We. Also the hidden gem is that we have brand new furniture and appliance organization stores which donate overstocked merchandise. We have some merchandise that we purchase in order to purposely sell because we can sell it. We get it at a discounted rate, but it's new merchandise, so new appliances, new furniture, and it changes constantly and you can buy it at a fraction of the price. And all of that money goes right back into building. 

Rich Bennett 42:49
Something else you guys have up there, which I love. I think it's a great idea if somebody is doing their own work in their house or DIY. Yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong, when I was up there last time I saw it, but you have like I guess are coming from the rehabs, you know, whatever. Doors. Yeah. Windows and stuff like that. 

Phyliss Mosca 43:08
Yeah. So not always. It's not really. Per se from the rehabs. Maybe you use some of that. Usually it's donated to us. So think of like a big box store that has overstock that they just can't sell or they're not going to sell. It might be worthwhile for them to donate it to us, Take that tax write off and then we sell the products. We also have, you know, builders and communities that have not finished their building. Right, Right. They've gone bankrupt or whatever the hell they decide not to do it. They will donate it to us. And so that's what the fun part is, is I was in last weekend with some family just checking out. They wanted to check it out. They were in from out of town. And it's neat. You never know. What you're going to. 

Rich Bennett 43:50
Find. Oh, you? Like I said, my wife's always looking. She we need to get everything restored. They have these chairs they had. This is, of course, me. I keep saying you got to get rid of something. 

Phyliss Mosca 44:01
Yeah, Yeah, that's how I was. That's how we were with our kids. You can't buy a new toy and you get rid of two. 

Rich Bennett 44:07
I think I have to stop doing that. Because with this, you know, with something like Aberdeen Restore, that's. That's not going to be there again. Yeah, Yeah. You know, so if you see. 

Phyliss Mosca 44:17
Oh no. 

Rich Bennett 44:17
I learned to. 

Phyliss Mosca 44:18
Act on it. 

Rich Bennett 44:19
Because I'll never forget this at a store was a little refrigerator. Actually it may have been a K grader I can't remember, but it had the Ravens logo on it. Yeah. You eat it with any logo on it and the whole thing was wrapped and I was told, well, no, don't worry about it. You can get later. Get later. Will they stop making it. 

Phyliss Mosca 44:39
Oh my goodness. I see that. See that. Yeah. Sometimes you just got to. 

Rich Bennett 44:43
Act, which are probably good too, because I don't watch football. 

Phyliss Mosca 44:46
Okay. Yeah. There you go. There you. 

Rich Bennett 44:47
Go. I need to start getting into that. I can't even watch the Orioles anymore because it's not a regular TV. 

Phyliss Mosca 44:53
Oh, gosh. I didn't even see. I don't even know. 

Rich Bennett 44:56
So is there any plans on opening another restore? 

Phyliss Mosca 45:01
We would like to. It's all again, a cost and. Benefit type thing, right? So we would love to. And I think there's some talk about how we can expand re story and what makes the most sense, but not at this time. Now this is the this is our. So there's. Lots of restores lots of affiliates do it. The one in our territory for Susquehanna is Hartford and it's the only one is in Oregon. Yes, that's the one that supports our affiliate locally. 

Rich Bennett 45:32
Because I'm sitting here thinking of all these shopping centers that are around with vacant. 

Phyliss Mosca 45:37
Mm. 

Rich Bennett 45:39
You know, buildings in them. I would think that the people that own that might you would. 

Phyliss Mosca 45:44
Who might. 

Rich Bennett 45:46
Put something up say, well here we're not doing anything with it, you can use it. 

Phyliss Mosca 45:52
And go. 

Rich Bennett 45:53
I'm not going to drop it. 

Phyliss Mosca 45:54
I'm thinking too. Are you thinking like they could donate it or discount it because they have. We will take an offer on that. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 46:03
Because it's one of the greatest things I've seen when it comes to stuff like that in Bel-Air, the Bel-Air Armory Market. 

Phyliss Mosca 46:11
I love that. Incubator. Beautiful. 

Rich Bennett 46:14
Something that the whole can. 

Phyliss Mosca 46:16
Right. Get people started. Is it worthwhile? Is it viable? Can I continue? Yeah. Can I grow this more? And some don't and some do. But like, it's a good way to get businesses to try. When you have that lower cost to entry. 

Rich Bennett 46:32
You help nonprofits. 

Phyliss Mosca 46:33
I mean. 

Rich Bennett 46:34
Why not have a job of Tanner age would restore why not have a northeast. Yeah it's. 

Phyliss Mosca 46:41
Yeah it's. 

Rich Bennett 46:42
Putting money it's it's a big fundraiser. Yeah. You guys. 

Phyliss Mosca 46:45
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean it is and and I will tell. You that the biggest hurdle for us now, you know, is is cost rates. So as a nonprofit, we keep our costs very low, as low as possible. We take that very seriously. I personally take it very seriously. I will speak, you know, for. If someone's donating. Their money, I want to make sure I'm using it really wisely. Right. And so almost 90% of every dollar donated goes right back into the mission. Good. And so it's awesome. So we really have to just always evaluate things on we can't spend very much, but we want to raise as much as possible. And that's how we keep this model working, right? But together, that's, you know, talking about you said earlier, it takes a village and it's a community. And we do a lot of that here in Hartford County. That's the theme of my next faith campaign, which I'll be doing on a similar type of thing as I did with Women Build, where it'll be a crowd raiser. We're crowd fundraiser, CROWD So it'll be a crowd sourced, so it'll be a platform online where you can share the page and people can donate to this faith campaign through the end of the year. It'll be kicking off sometime in October. And the whole. Idea is Yucca. Mountain got us started with $10,000 and we want to raise another 20 and we can do this together. And the mission is to reflect God's love, rebuilding, strength, stability and self-reliance through affordable housing and homeownership. And so how do we do that? We do that in partnership with the community. And even a $50 donation will make a difference when combined and with 500 other $50, you know, or a hundred other, every little bit helps. And we can all feel really good about it because it raises you know, one, there's that saying, and I'm going to botch it up right now, but like we rise the tide so the whole community, the benefits when we have people living in their own home and paying back a mortgage, mortgage and stability and strength, the average family before coming to Habitat, they're not typically homeless, but they are couch surfing often or they're living in totally unaffordable sets. A quiet qualifier is unaffordable, unsustainable or or unreliable. I guess it is. Or unsafe conditions. They have to qualify five by income level, and then they have to qualify with one of those three things. So they might be living in a basement somewhere of a friend, but it's not sustainable rate. So it's unreliable. It might they might have an apartment, but they're paying $1,000 a month and they're only making 40,000 a year. Well, that's not sustainable. Paying 12,000. Well, maybe that number would work there, but they're typically not paying a thousand. But you know that whatever it 1500 too, because the average three bedroom in Harford County is 18, 1900. So even if they're getting it. Slightly lower at 1600. They can their average family is making 40,000 a year. 

Rich Bennett 49:45
And it's not cheap. They're in an apartment now either. 

Phyliss Mosca 49:47
That's what I'm saying. They're about 18 or 1900. 

Rich Bennett 49:50
For an apartment, right? 

Phyliss Mosca 49:51
Yes. Yes. For a three bedroom. In Harford County. Yes. Slightly low. 

Rich Bennett 49:56
Mortgage. 

Phyliss Mosca 49:57
That's a mortgage. And so do you want to hear something amazing, which is just makes me in awe, even though I've been hearing it for six years and it's gone up a little bit. But our average family can. Buy. Their monthly payment to buy their habitat home, which includes taxes, insurance and their mortgage payment. Okay, Of course there's no interest. What do you think. They can their monthly payment would be knowing that we build, on average, a three bedroom and knowing that the rent in Harford County is about 1800 dollars on average for that. What do you think it costs? 

Rich Bennett 50:32
I'm afraid even guess. 

Phyliss Mosca 50:34
Take a swing. 

Rich Bennett 50:35
All right. So through habitat or. 

Phyliss Mosca 50:38
Through habitat, our homes. 

Rich Bennett 50:43
I'm going to say oh, 

900. 

Phyliss Mosca 50:49
That's a great guess. That would be awesome, right? On average, that would be saving about 900 a month. Right now, most of our families are not living in their average rental. If they could, they would probably not qualify. You can't pay 800 a month and make only 40,000. Right. So but the average family can get into buying their home for 700 a month, huh? 

Rich Bennett 51:11
Yeah. 

Phyliss Mosca 51:12
So that's why it's sustainable. So now at 700 a month, you can work one full time job, You can be there for your kids. You have stability. There's not that fear of losing your apartment every month. If if you're great, you can save a little bit of money. You can store up for whatever the rainy day, you know, a little bit. Right. And get ahead. And that's what breaks a cycle of poverty, is building some equity in your home. The average person doesn't have investments all over the place. They have their money in their home, and without that, they can't build wealth. It's very it's much more difficult. 

Rich Bennett 51:52
When did apartments start costing more? 

Phyliss Mosca 51:55
I, I know. Well, I'm sorry to say when you have an average I do know this number somewhere in there. HUD come on in my brain come on out. But I don't know exactly. It's well into the mid. Three hundreds, an average home in Harford County. So You're not paying. You're probably paying more than that. Right? Right. 

Rich Bennett 52:15
Well, they require more money down now, too. 

Phyliss Mosca 52:17
Yeah. So but you're probably I. Mean, I don't know. I'd have to do a mortgage thing, but, you know, to buy a 350,000 our home taking out, you know, you putting 20% down. So you're maybe at a $280,000. Mortgage 30 years. I don't know. I don't even know what that is. But probably similar. Yeah, it's not cheaper than that. 

Rich Bennett 52:38
It's not 0%. 

Phyliss Mosca 52:39
It's not 0% rate. So you're. Probably paying. At least the mortgage. I mean, the rental amount. 

Rich Bennett 52:46
Wow. I am still shocked about the part where like seniors needing help. 

Phyliss Mosca 52:52
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:53
With their homes. You guys will if they can take you in if they qualify. 

Phyliss Mosca 52:57
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:58
You will help with repairs? 

Phyliss Mosca 53:00
Absolutely. Absolutely. I never we do about 50 repairs a year. In the counties. 

Rich Bennett 53:07
Because a lot of people don't know about. 

Phyliss Mosca 53:08
It. Yeah, yeah, we share it and you know, we have to get we do get some good funding. For that because it's a. Much needed cause. We have to apply for the funding. It's a process, but it helps us with those costs. We are trying to make the public aware that we yes, a number one, we don't give away homes. I always say this right, which I'm. Glad you we don't qualify too. We do need. Financial donations because the second misconception is because we're all volunteers, we don't need any money. Right. But that we've just just proved that we do have a small staff and we do have to hire professionals and we do have only 4% of our materials are donated. So we have to buy 96% of the building materials which have gone up tremendously. We have to buy the land. So there's costs involved, right? So we have to fundraise for that. So we need donors, financial donors. And then the third, I guess, right behind it misconception would be that that's all we do is build homes, but we do repairs, we do financial. Literacy classes. Right? We do all of this. We have the restore. So there's a lot of programs that we offer the community. 

Rich Bennett 54:18
You know, it's something you said there. And I think this is a big misconception of a lot of people. So a lot of people, when they hear of a nonprofit and, you know, they hear, well, why am I going to donate to them when they're when they're paying staff? A nonprofit is still business. 

Phyliss Mosca 54:35
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:36
You very nobody going to volunteer to be there 8 hours a day? Yeah, 7 to 5 days, right? Yep. You have to pay them. It has to happen no matter. 

Phyliss Mosca 54:47
Right. Right. 

Rich Bennett 54:49
You can't tell them. I can't think of any nonprofit that actually has a staff and that's they're not paid. 

Phyliss Mosca 54:57
Right. 

Rich Bennett 54:58
And there is. 

Phyliss Mosca 54:58
You know, there's. A saying in non so I left the for profit world and you know just the reality of life is most nonprofits pay significantly less than what you could get if you were doing the same job in a for profit. It's just a fact of life in the smaller ones are the least rate. So we are considered a large affiliate, but we're a small nonprofit, right. And so very small business. And so 

we when people think that or talk about that, I say, well, don't you think we all have rent or mortgages, too? And there's a joke in the nonprofit community that only independently wealthy people can work for nonprofits because you're not going to be able to pay your. Mortgage, right? It typically, you know, like it's a joke. It's not quite that extreme. But yeah. And so but the point. Being that we keep our costs very low. And I think the benefit of having a for profit background mix because a lot of nonprofit people. Don't even themselves. Realize. We should be highly. Profitable, make. As much profitable as possible. Profit as possible. Sock. That profit. Yeah. The difference is in a for profit, it goes into the owners. Pockets. Or into the shareholders pocket. In this. Case, the more profit we make, the more homes we build, the more repairs. We can do. Right? 

Rich Bennett 56:16
No matter how what way you look at it with a nonprofit, that money coming in, that, you know, besides the staff, that money that comes in is going back out to the community. 

Phyliss Mosca 56:26
Yes. And it's improving all. Of our lives. Yes. Because the community gets stronger. So it. Stays local. It stays in the community. We've seen many people. We have a lot. Of great nonprofits, many of which I supported long before I was a part of Habitat. And I can tell you that they're great. And but the pinnacle. The absolute highest point in. Our county is to become a habitat homebuyer, because we've had a lot of people come through SARC that, you know, were barely stable, just needed a safe place and then they progressed up to like a Harford family house or, you know, another one of the shelter systems. And that's not the goal is to get into a subsidized, you know, place rate. The goal is the pinnacle. The highest goal above that is to buy a habitat home, get secure enough. You're not that secure. At Harford family house around another not they're awesome and they're needed SARC is needed but the goal I think of if I if I had my dream would be every single person that passes their doors graduates to become a habitat homebuyer. Because then we're building sustainability and stability and strength and and wealth and all of that, right? So we break that cycle of poverty. I know several people that have gone through those programs and they get stuck there. Yeah, they never move out of that subsidized housing and. It's not a bad thing. Some people need it our society needs that. Some people need that they're disabled, whatever the reason is. And they also want for everyone. The. The stability and self-reliance and dignity of having their own home. Yes. And paying for it and being invested in it. You can't compare living in a subsidized apartment to owning and doing that sweat and labor to, you know. I'm sure you did to to buy your first home. It's like you work your little tail off. If you're not born. Most of us are not born with someone handing it out to us. Right. So it's like you work and then you're so proud of this rusty little rundown place you're about to fix up. And it feels so good. Yeah, it's nothing like it. 

Rich Bennett 58:52
I and I'm not. I'm not good when it comes to repairing things. I'm not that good at Facebook. My father told my both of my brothers, I. He tried to teach me. I hit his thumb with the hammer one time. He never call me again. My house we're in. We're in the process. Have been in the process for God knows how many years of remodeling I have the basement. Wow. Brother in law. 

Phyliss Mosca 59:16
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 59:17
Destruction is easy to do. 

Phyliss Mosca 59:19
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 59:19
Yeah, yeah. So when it comes to construction. Yeah, I felt so excited because my son, who's an electrician, came over and I wanted to replace fluorescent lights in the kitchen under the counter and ask him to come here. I said, Dude, I said, I'm not comfortable messing with electricity. Yeah, yeah. 

Phyliss Mosca 59:41
Mm. 

Rich Bennett 59:42
Your dad, you only get that a little bit. I said, I don't want to use that at all. So I said, can you. I said just come over, show me how to do it next time you're in the area. So he had to come over and borrow my lighter because he had to go to a job. I said, Well, show me how to do this real quick. So he did. And of course, my Plexus backer is like your father. Scared? Yeah, understandably so. I felt so excited because I replaced the other one by myself. I of course, my wife is. Well, what's this stuff you ordered from Amazon? Well, I need a tester. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:00:18
I need. Yeah, Yeah, probably. Yeah, yeah, sure. But I. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:21
Felt so. It felt so good. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:00:24
It does feel so good. I felt so good putting that siding up. I was proud. I was taking pictures. I did this whole wall. It was like, oh my gosh, We had teenagers. From our church doing. It and they felt so good. Oh, they learned skills that they probably would. Have never. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:41
Learned. And that's a big thing if you can get the kids involved. Years ago, I think it was before COVID, we had the routine homeless shelter. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:00:50
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:51
So at the time we had kids in our Leo Club. Yeah, we would always do as a Lions club in Leo's. We would always volunteer we would cook out. We would grill food for the homeless shelter. Yeah, rotating homeless shelter. And the leaders would serve them. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:01:05
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:06
When when the lions. When we finished, a lot of us would leave the Leo's stay behind and would sit there and play games. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:01:14
Oh, I love that. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:14
Yeah. It was with the homeless and all that and every year they kept asking us, is a routine homeless shelter coming around? Are we going to do it? And we did it for all these years. And of course now they don't do it. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:01:26
Yeah, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:27
And, but yeah, yeah, the kids loved it and we learned so much from it. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:01:31
That's awesome. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:31
And it fills our hearts. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:01:33
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's also. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:36
Something very important to everybody. The website so they know how to. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:01:40
Oh yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:41
Donate and find out anything it or websites because it's too right. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:01:45
Well you can. Get to the Restore the one website. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:48
That I was touching you There. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:01:49
You go. Yes absolutely you you passed. So the name. Of the organization is Habitat for Humanity, Susquehanna. So if you remember Susquehanna, the name of the website will help. So it's Habitat. S u s Q for Susquehanna that oh org Habitat's Usk dot org. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:09
And don't forget to click that. Donate. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:02:11
Yeah, donate. Absolutely. Get to the restore and see all of that. Schedule a pick up, whatever you need. So the volunteer. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:18
Backers say, can we go up there? So, Phyllis, is there anything you like to add? 

Phyliss Mosca 1:02:25
I just want to thank you for having me on and for what you do and for sharing this. And thank you all around. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:31
Thank you. Feel free to come back on any time. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:02:34
Thank you. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:35
The next Faith Builder Women build. And I think I mentioned this before. If you can get a group together, I don't know if it would be best to talk to them before or after. I would have to say after. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:02:46
Yeah, probably. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:47
Just so. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:02:48
Yeah, the excitement is like, look what we did. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:50
Yeah. Yeah. Because I think and usually, like you said, internationally wise, they're doing this. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:02:56
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:56
But I think once people throughout the world hear about this, they're going to become involved in all of them. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:03:03
Yeah. What I would. Add is next year we're hoping to have we had ten teams this year. We're hoping to have 13 teams next year. We will be fundraising in May. This year we're going to push it back. Okay. I should be saying next year. So it'll be May of next year will be fundraising. Any women that want to lead a team, just reach out to me on the website. You can contact me through the website or you'll see the phone number there and just reach out to me and you. We're happy to have you. And so we were looking for women build. We're also looking for churches now that want to be a part of this upcoming faith build. So thank you. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:41
Thank you so much. It's been a true pleasure. 

Phyliss Mosca 1:03:44
Thank you. It really has for me to thank you.