On June 30, Corrine Schulter received the keys to her new home in Cherry Hill, a 1,100 square foot, three bed, two bath that marks the first home built by Habitat for Humanity in the township.
Schulter, who currently works as a structured settlement specialist, has been living in a two bedroom condo with her three sons for the past seven years, Liam, Gavin and Greyson, in Little Egg Harbor and only told her children about the new house two weeks ago.
“My middle son was so excited, he was like ‘I can’t wait for Christmas. I can’t wait to spend Christmas here in my new house and we’re going to get to decorate,'” Schulter said. “It was really touching, it was very sweet. And then today was the first day they officially got to see the house and they’re like, ‘this is beautiful, you got this?'”
The ribbon cutting for the new home, which was the first moment her children saw the house, was attended by several representatives of companies that supplied volunteers for the home along with a member of the Cherry Hill Township Council Daniel DiRenzo and a member of Camden County Commissioners, Colleen Bianco Bezich
In total, 26 people applied to live in the house, which had certain requirements, including credit score requirements and expected resident count.
In the end, a total of 332 volunteers spent nearly 1,990 hours on the project, working on the existing house’s interior and exterior, which included extending the house to add another bedroom and bathroom.
Once the ribbon cutting finished, workers continued to finish the house.
Vince McGrath, the Director of Construction for Habitat for Humanity of South Central New Jersey (HFHSCNJ), shared that the the house should be finished by the end of July, as the volunteers still need to finish working on the back steps and install handles on the kitchen cabinets.
The unfinished back steps of the house.
Schulter herself helped work on the house along with taking home ownership classes.
“I ended up just helping work on the house with them, and it was just a beautiful thing,” Schulter said. The new home owner shared that she took around 20 hours of ownership classes on top of going to school, working full time, and raising her three children.
Besides Habitat, several other corporations supplied volunteers and financial contributions including Corporate Synergies, CSAA Insurance Group, California Closets, Freedom Mortgage, Weber Gallagher, Trane, Target and JAN-PRO.
Several of the companies had representatives at the ribbon cutting to providing Schulter with various gifts, including a broom, a shovel, and a Bible. Paige Salvador, a human resources employee experience manager with the United States Cold Storage, supported the building efforts with an all-female team and also gave the new home owner salt.
“We’re presenting you with salt, because everybody needs a little spice in their lives,” Salvador said. “And I know you and your family will have some health and happiness in your new home.”
Several young girls, representing Girl Scout Troop 30008 and Troop 30789, presented baskets of donations that they collected to give to Schulter and her children.
The township spent $255,000 through a grant from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund for the acquisition of the property and used a Community Development Block Grant from Cherry Hill for $43,633.65 on renovations.
Annie Fox, the Chief Development Officer for Habitat for Humanity, shared that owning a home has an enormous impact on people.
“We’ve seen HFH homeowners get promoted or move onto have better jobs,” Fox said. “Sometimes they even move out of the low- to moderate-income range, but their house is still theirs, which is great. We want to see them succeed. So it really just is a snowball effect of what a foundation of a house can provide for someone.”
Part of the reason Habitat was able to get this home built in Cherry Hill, Fox said, is because of the more recent affordable housing requirements imposed by the state through the Fair Share Housing Center, something that pushed townships to donate land to groups like Habitat.
Schulter said she was surprised to hear that she got selected at all when she applied last year, but felt it was worth taking the leap.
“It just felt like it was meant to be,” Schulter said. “I was a little nervous, because it’s about an hour from my house, where I grew up. But at the end of the day … I wanted to follow my heart and see where it leads and what doors open up for me. I go through them and see where my life leads with me and my children. And so here we are, lots of sweat equity later, nail guns and all.”
Corrine Schulter (center) holds the ribbon she cut for her new home around her neck in front of her three children while Lori Leonard, CEO of HFHSCNJ, (left) holds the house keys.
