Home goes mobile: Lubbock Habitat moves new house built by Lubbock ISD students

Lubbock Habitat for Humanity organizers and volunteers gathered Tuesday morning at the Byron Martin Advanced Technology Center to help transfer a student-built house to its new location in northeast Lubbock.

House movers loaded up a Habitat house that Lubbock ISD construction students have been building throughout the school year, according to Lubbock Habitat Executive Director Christy Reeves.

This Lubbock ISD program allows Career and Technical Education students to learn construction and trades such as plumbing and electrical by building Habitat homes at the Byron Martin Advanced Technology Center.

“This Lubbock ISD program is vitally important to Habitat, but also to the entire building industry," Reeves said. "We must encourage more students to consider careers in plumbing, electrical, and other construction related fields in order to have a workforce available in the future.”

Each year Lubbock Habitat partners with Lubbock ISD to raise funds to provide construction materials, and Lubbock ISD students work with their teachers through their construction classes to build the Habitat houses while learning valuable skills. Donations are needed to continue to fund this program.

"This program is a great opportunity for Habitat to receive valuable help with the construction of our houses, while students are discovering how exciting and rewarding it can be to learn new skills while helping others," Reeves said. "Other Habitat affiliates are always reaching out to me wanting to start similar programs because this is such a fantastic model.”

Once the Lubbock ISD houses are completed up to a certain point, local house movers transport the house to the current Habitat neighborhood, and volunteers finish all needed work to prepare the house for a new Habitat homeowner.

Lubbock Habitat currently builds four to six homes each year for qualified applicants who are accepted into the affordable housing program. Homeowners are required to perform 250 hours of “sweat equity” by attending financial literacy and education classes as well as doing construction on their home and other Habitat houses. Anyone wanting to donate to the Lubbock ISD program can contact Christy Reeves at creeves@lubbockhaitat.org.