Carter Works Project 2010 Descends on the Twin Cities

The Twin Cities branch of Habitat for Humanity and 2,000 volunteers have begun a weeklong campaign to build 26 new homes and spruce up about a dozen others in neighborhoods of Minneapolis and St. Paul hit by mortgage foreclosures.

As part of the the 27th annual Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Work Project 2010, 14 new homes will be built in the East Side Payne-Phalen neighborhood of St. Paul and 12 new houses will be constructed in Minneapolis’s Hawthorne EcoVillage neighborhood in the north. The local initiative is being held in conjunction with similar efforts being held this week in Washington, D.C., Annapolis and Baltimore, Md., and Birmingham, Ala. In the end, about 86 homes will be built or rehabbed across the six cities.

The Carters visited the Twin Cities on Wednesday to help the local Habitat for Humanity chapter kickoff a four-year fundraising campaign. The organization's goal is to raise $36 million to expand services. On Thursday, as a part of Habitat’s fixit-up program called “A Brush of Kindness,” former President Carter will help spruce up a home on Desoto Street in St. Paul.

Habitat for Humanity’ mission is to build safe, affordable homes for low-income people. Since 1983, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity volunteers have built 813 houses.