Paterson Habitat for Humanity

A little bit over twelve months Ed Smith, my main contact at Paterson Habitat for Humanity packed his bags and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. He had been volunteering at Habitat for many years. I say volunteering because he was already retired and the salary that he got paid was not based on his experience, it was much lower than what he used to make before working there.
He was honestly my last true contact there, even though I had some contact with the director. He was criticized by many people for being at times rigid, inflexible. I find that to be in many cases a plus, because the criticism came from having expectations from people, the same that he had from himself, and one of the issues was that he was rigid about schedules. I, for one, am always running late, not by much, but punctuality is not my biggest asset. But I do not criticize those who are on time.
The thing I liked the most of Ed was that when we went out to see a property in just a matter of minutes he knew exactly what he wanted from the property, what had to be done. All of this came from this many years of experience in construction. So I did not have to waist a lot of time going out with him. The same thing with the listings that I sent him, he would say this one yes and this one is not for us. He would always tell it as he saw it.
I had had a very productive relationship with Habitat for several years. But over twelve months ago the organization decided to head in a different direction. They “pushed” Mr. Smith out the door for somebody with less experience but with the gift of the gab. She could make the director believe that it was summer in the middle of a snow blizzard. I am not a great believer in talkers, I like doers, even though they don’t communicate well, they don’t sell every project that they finish, in other words they don’t have to cackle every time they lay an egg.
For many months I heard nothing from Habitat although I would email everything new that came on the market to Ed’s replacement. I even went ahead and started forwarding emails to the director. In the meantime they always asked for support whenever they would sell one of their properties, by asking for comparisons so that they could justify what they were asking for their properties. If I would take a few days they would follow up with calls and/or faxes.
So I decided to call the director one day and see what they were purchasing or if they had been looking at new properties, vacant land, etc. To my astonishment she told me that they had been purchasing properties through another real estate company, even though they would ask me for support. I felt that I was being taken advantage of my time and my generosity. So I felt that it was time to move on and cut my relationship with the organization as far as a customer was concerned.
The greatest surprise to me was that a few months later one of the employees of Paterson Habitat, with whom I kept in contact with, told me that they were finishing a condo complex in Paterson and that he was purchasing one of the units for his own use. To say that I was disappointed, disillusioned, is putting it mildly. I went as far as to say to him that I was always under the impression that the goal of Habitat was to help low income people purchase their own homes, and through donations of people of faith with financial resources and materials for building, and volunteers helping build the houses this was a success story. God at his best. He said that in some instances employees were able to purchase some of the units. As I write this I am still amazed at the answer.
I wonder if it’s the same at all Habitat offices, or if this is the exception. I am not naive, but I am very disappointment with the organization. I don’t think that I can ever support an organization with these values. And it all comes from the head, down.