Each Tuesday, about a dozen volunteers from The Members Group and local credit unions don blue jeans and sweat shirts instead of suits. Rather than using a computer and talking on the phone, they’ll spend the day hammering, drywalling and roofing at the Habitat for Humanity house they’re sponsoring.

“It’s a nice tangible way to see that you’re helping someone else,” said Gayle Welter, director of communications for the West Des Moines company, which provides financial services to credit unions throughout the country.

The Members Group, which employs about 150 people, recently partnered with nine area credit unions to partially sponsor a house in the King-Irving Neighborhood, which is scheduled for completion by late February. It’s one of seven houses that will be completed through Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity this fiscal year.

An ecumenical Christian housing ministry, Habitat has served Polk County since 1986, and to date has completed 38 homes.

“But we have been engaged in a very aggressive growth curve in the last two years,” said Mark Elliott, director of development for Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity. “Of those 38 homes, we’ve done 13 of them in the past two years, so we’ve done more in the last two years than the previous 10 years.”

The accelerating pace has been the result of more partnerships formed throughout Greater Des Moines, Elliott said. The program partners with organizations to provide funding and volunteer labor to build houses for qualified low-income families, who contribute by providing a total of 350 hours of “sweat equity” on other families’ homes and then on their own. The family then buys the house they select at cost, using a zero-interest, 20-year loan.

“As we become more and more proactive with the community explaining how we work and why we do what we do, we see more and more volunteers stepping forward,” Elliott said. “Not only individuals and the faith community, but very much from the business community.”

In addition to sponsoring houses, companies are also stepping forward to fund specific program components. Citigroup Inc., for instance, recently provided a $20,000 grant to support Habitat’s Blueprint to Homeownership for 2005. The 36-hour class, which includes 12 hours of financial counseling, is required for families that will build and purchase a Habitat house.

In another partnership, EMC Insurance Group Inc. will donate the additional cost — between $5,000 and $7,000 — needed to upgrade the construction of a Habitat house to meet the guidelines of a new disaster-resistant construction program. Insurers are participating in the program in the hope that widespread adoption of the guidelines will ultimately result in fewer storm damage claims and lower premiums.

In recent years, the Greater Des Moines business community has provided about 70 percent of the total sponsorship dollars and 75 percent of the volunteer labor, Elliott said. On average, the materials for each house cost about $75,000, but the contribution requested is normally about $50,000, which is then leveraged with grants, in-kind contributions and mortgage income from current Habitat homeowners, he said.

Overall, total contributions increased by 27 percent during fiscal year 2004 over the previous fiscal year, but more assistance is needed if the organization is going to reach its goal of building 15 houses each year, he said.

“We’re planning to build 10 houses next year, and (outreach is) one of my ongoing projects right now, because by no means are those houses all funded at this time,” Elliott said. “I am reaching out to the community, particularly the business community but also the faith community, to pull together the sponsorships for those houses.”

One of Habitat’s largest supporters in Des Moines is Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, whose employees this year are involved in working on six of the seven houses being built. Through the Wells Fargo Housing Foundation, the financial services company has contributed more than $1.1 million to the Greater Des Moines Habitat affiliate in the past three years. Earlier this month, 40 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage executives and employees spent a Saturday working on four separate houses.

“It just feels really good because you are working in partnership with the future homeowner,” said Cara Heiden, division president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. “In the morning I was pounding nails right beside the future home owner … and later in the day we were able to dedicate one of the homes that was finished. I believe there wasn’t a dry eye in the group, because they know what homeownership means.”

From the businesses’ perspective, the volunteering creates a tremendous staff- development opportunity, Elliott said.

“Many a time I’ve had an executive tell me, ‘You know, some of these people would not have approached me simply because of my position in the company.’ But now they know, I can’t drywall, and they can. So we’ve developed a rapport to where they get back in the office, they’re approachable. And to a senior executive, that’s priceless.”

DNR loan allows for ReStore expansion

An expansion of the Greater Des Moines Habitat ReStore will enable more funding to go directly toward building houses in the community, while reducing the amount of building and remodeling supplies that end up in the landfill.

Through a $46,000 forgivable loan provided by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the store will be able to move to a larger space within the Habitat offices at 2341 Second Ave. and expand its hours of operation.

In its initial year of operation last year, the ReStore, which accepts donation of new and slightly used building materials for resale to the public at reduced prices, diverted 38 tons of materials from the landfill. With the expansion, that number is expected to grow to 350 tons per year by its fourth year of operation. The store is operated by students in Dowling Catholic High School’s entrepreneurial studies program.

“By donating to or purchasing from Habitat’s ReStore, people get the chance to support land stewardship, youth education and affordable housing — all with one act,” said Lance Henning, executive director of Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity.

With the expansion, “we’re expecting the revenues to substantially increase,” said Mark Elliott, Habitat’s director of development, which will pay for overhead costs and allow more donations to go entirely to building houses.