Last year...

Thanks to all who donated and volunteered to help us build DAHfH's milestone 600th house! Archie Edwards and her family are now homeowners at 4703 Stokes Street in Joppa. We dedicated her house on April 28, 2007, and we celebrated the build (and raised funds for this year's build) with help from the great folks at the Madi Museum in Dallas!

Archie's home was the Home Project's 16th Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity sponsor house. We are ready to continue our service to the community and were honored to be chosen by Habitat to build their 600th house!

Dallas Bar Association Home Project is a volunteer organization that partners with DAHfH to sponsor and build a new Habitat home each spring. The roots of Home Project began growing 15 years ago when three Dallas Bar Association attorneys, all participating in the DBA Community Involvement Committee, were searching for additional community service projects for the Committee. Al Ellis, Rex Spivey, and Dolly Kyle initiated the project by partnering with Habitat for Humanity to build our first home for a local family. Volunteer attorneys have carried the torch since then, making the project what it is today: a coordinated effort by hundreds of attorneys from firms across Dallas, each giving their time and frequently their money to support the cause of affordable, decent housing. Mr. Ellis explains, “It is really one of the best programs we have come up with at the [Dallas] Bar...the beauty of the project was that it could involve a large number of lawyers and really focus on team building.” The central theme is, and has been, that no commitment of time or money is too small; every hour and every dollar make a difference.

The homes our volunteers build are not gifts. Each DAHfH home is financially sponsored by a group of individuals or an organization (like the Home Project) which provides the necessary funds for the construction costs. Habitat for Humanity homeowners then pay Habitat for their houses with a 25-year, interest-free mortgage made possible through our sponsorship and other Habitat resources. The mortgage payments help fund further homes for DAHfH families. In lieu of a down payment, the homeowners contribute 400 hours of “sweat equity,” building their own homes and the homes of other DAHfH families.

In 2006, we were thrilled to sponsor and build a cozy home for Ms. Laura Compos (a teacher’s assistant with DISD) and her three children. The Dallas legal community donated about $60,000 and over a thousand volunteer hours to build the family’s new home. The DBA Home Project is proud to have made affordable homeownership a reality for our sponsored families, and we thank each of you for helping us reach our goal of sponsoring one home for a local family each year.

In 2007, we will build a home at 4703 Stokes, located in the historic Joppa (pronounced “Joppy”) neighborhood of south Dallas, which is tucked away near the banks of the Trinity River at the edge of the Great Trinity Forest. The community became a rallying point for African-Americans after the Civil War and remained a prosperous African-American community from the late 1860s until the 1970s. It is still considered one of the best preserved Freedman communities in the United States. To this day, the date of the Emancipation Proclamation (June 19th) is remembered in the neighborhood with an annual celebration. It is believed that the community’s name translates to “beautiful” or “the beginning” in Hebrew. We hope to see you at the build site between Feb. 17 and Mar. 31, 2007 for the construction of a beautiful new home for our next DAHfH family!

We would like to thank our faithful supporters who make The DBA Home Project’s success possible, including: attorneys, judges and legal support professionals, who provided the dollars and the manpower to build the home; The Dallas Court Reporters Association, which generously provided healthy and delicious meals for our many volunteers; Thomson West, which sponsored our annual Wrap Party; Hartline, Dacus, Barger, Dreyer & Kern, LLP, for sponsoring our kick-off event; the leadership and staff of the Dallas Bar Association, who supported our efforts in too many ways to enumerate; and Tony Gatlin of Lone Star Litigation Support, who has been generous with his time and sponsorship of our printing needs. Finally, we would like to thank the hardworking Home Project Committee members for applying their talents toward this project, so that we can continue the legacy of community service started by DBA leaders so many years ago.

If you are interested in participating in DBA Home Project, please contact one of this year’s Co-Chairs, Jennifer Presley (jenpresley@sbcglobal.net) or Patrick Holmes (holmes@technopatents.com). To make a charitable donation, please visit our website or send your check payable to “Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity” c/o DBA Home Project, Attn.: Teddi Rivas, Dallas Bar Association, 2101 Ross Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75201.