Quoting from last week’s article on Lakeshore Food Club: “Food insecurity is frequently part of a constellation of challenges: housing, medical costs, car costs, and the list goes on. That is the reason the Lakeshore Food Club partners with other community service organizations.” One of the service organizations Food Club partners with is Home Team Housing - a group that meets the challenges of housing insecurity.
Until a few years ago, Oceana County and Mason County each had a Habitat for Humanity franchise. But that changed when Habitat International made some major changes. Oceana County dissolved their Habitat franchise in 2022 and transferred their assets to the Mason County Habitat franchise. Mason County disassociated from Habitat in 2024 when the franchise fee increased by 400% and Habitat wanted to take over the marketing for all its franchises.
“This was not workable for our local counties,” reported Jamie Healy, Executive Director for Home Team Housing (formerly known as Habitat for Humanity) in Scottville. “The Habitat home office could not produce effective marketing without a thorough knowledge and understanding of our market audience. We chose a new name to emphasize our focus on local families.”
In addition, construction costs for building new Habitat homes had increased to approximately $100,000 more than local families who needed homes could afford. Healy said, “The unaffordability of newly constructed homes, added to the challenge of the aging housing inventory in our local counties, drove us to a new focus - critical home repairs. Many families in older homes are finding necessary repairs beyond their financial resources. There are families without running water because they cannot afford the cost of a new well when their old well stops functioning. There are families without adequate heat because they cannot afford to replace their broken furnace. And there are families with leaky roofs because they cannot afford to reshingle their roof. Helping to provide these critical repairs is what we do now, through referrals only.”
Readers may remember Habitat’s facility on US-10 east of Ludington called the ReStore, where building materials and tools could be donated and resold to support Habitat projects. Healy affirmed, “The resale facility continues to be the biggest fundraising source for Home Team Housing. For a number of reasons, the store raised $25,000 more in 2024 than it did in 2025, and this impacted how many projects we could do.”
Antique dealers seek treasures there. The front of the building is a showroom for furniture and home furnishings offered at modest prices. The middle section of the building has plumbing and electrical supplies, tile, countertops, bed frames, appliances and other construction materials.
The back of the building provides office space and room for sorting and pricing donations. “The resale store is open Thursday through Saturday, and we operate it with two paid staff members and two volunteers,” Healy shared. “We welcome donations of good used furniture, and we can always use more volunteers for sorting, processing and testing donations. Occasionally we refinish pieces. Our income relies on store sales, on grants, financial gifts from local donors, a raffle and an annual golf outing.”
Formerly dedicated only to Mason County projects, Home Team Housing now also does some work in Oceana County. Projects are chosen only from referrals made by other social service organizations. This is advantageous to all parties involved. Social workers know when they have exhausted all other options of help for their clients, Home Team Housing is one last possibility at their disposal.
Clients with limited resources are often weary of filling out the paperwork required for securing financial support, sometimes tired of telling their story and perhaps even embarrassed by their circumstances. When a social worker from TrueNorth Community Services, Veterans Coalition, Community Mental Health, Lakeshore Food Club, Blue Hat Ministries, or United Way Family Link contacts Home Team Housing, the paperwork has already been done for the social worker, who can vouch for the client’s need. Healy doesn’t need to know the whole backstory.
The clients are welcome to submit an estimate from a contractor they may have already contacted. Home Team will review the estimate and the contractor’s reputation and seek additional estimates if they think it’s advisable. “We have a list of contractors in the area who we have worked with for years and whose work we trust. We use local help whenever possible,” Healy reported. “We are limited in how many repair projects we can accomplish by the amount of funding we can provide. Due to our resources, in 2024 we did 19 projects, and in 2025 we did 11 projects. We pay the contractor the entire cost and ask the homeowner to reimburse us for 25% of the cost as they are able.”
In some cases, Home Team Housing can decrease their cost by pursuing SER (State of Emergency Request) funding from the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). “They have a limited amount of funding to disburse and are willing to contribute up to $4,000 for a furnace and up to $1,500 for non-energy-related projects. This minimizes what the client has to pay us, a win-win situation.”
Did Healy have a favorite story or two to share? Yes. “In 2023 a family of four was referred to us who had gone two months without running water. We handled it speedily. Two days before Christmas, the woman sent me a photo of water running into her sink. ‘This is my Christmas miracle,' she wrote to me.
"In another case, a widow needed a furnace and had no idea of where to begin or what to do. Her social worker contacted Home Team Housing, and we were able to help. In yet another situation, a family with two small children was living in a house only two years old. The well had stopped functioning, and the father lost his job. They were broke and had no water. The original contractor refused to stand by his work. Home Team Housing stepped in and took care of the problem, once again saving a family from homelessness - one project at a time."
For more information, please see their Facebook page, Home Team Housing, or visit their website at hometeamhousing.org
