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Dalai Lama Was Choice For This Habitat Housewarming

by Melinda Tuhus | Nov 24, 2010 1:00 pm

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Posted to: Housing, The Hill

Traditionally, it was time to hand out a Bible as a heartwarming gift to the newest Habitat for Humanity family. But that tradition was amended at the dedication of two side-by-side homes on Sylvan Avenue in the Hill Tuesday.

The Santana family (pictured) got the Christian holy book from the Rev. Nancy Ramos. But their next-door neighbors, the Wangdak/Choedaks, are Tibetan Buddhists. So they got another more or less holy book—The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama.

Melinda Tuhus Photo The two homes are the 76th and 77th built by Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven. The dedication took place on the Wandak/Choedak porch with Tibetan prayer flags fluttering overhead. (Click here for a previous story about the family.)

The cost of the materials—about $50,000 for each house—was covered by Yale-New Haven Hospital. The same was true for another house in the Hill earlier this year.

“Sponsors step up and sponsor a build, which means they underwrite the cost of materials, and contribute volunteer labor,” said Richard D’Aquila,  Yale-NewHaven’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, who sits on the Habitat Board of Directors. The first house was on Wilson Street.

“It’s a great value,” D’Aquila (pictured) continued. “For fifty or sixty thousand or whatever we spend, you get a heck of a house, and you get a home that goes to first-time homeowners that are connected to the house through sweat equity. And we get neighborhoods that get populated with homeowners and not renters. Nothing against renters, but it just creates a vibrant community when people live here” and are not absentee landlords.

He added that the hospital’s employees—from docs to custodians—were enthusiastic about volunteering. More than 200 have come out to work on one or more of the three Yale-New Haven houses. He said the hospital plans to build two houses a year on streets near the hospital, where it already owns land.

The new owners each put in 400 hours of sweat equity, at least half of it on their own home and the rest on other Habitat projects. That’s another way to build community, said Habitat’s executive director, Bill Casey.

“This partnership doesn’t end when you move in,” he said. “It goes on; we take care of each other.”

One of the new homeowners, Dorjee Wangdak, works in housekeeping at the hospital (though that had no bearing on his selection, which is random; the build sponsor has no influence on the selection process). He heard about the program from a fellow employee, Robert Henderson (pictured with him, left to right), who moved into his own Habitat home in Hamden six months ago.

Construction Manager Adam Blasavage wung two hammers prior to handing one off to each of the men in the two families. “Passing the hammer symbolizes passing responsibility for these houses from us here at Habitat to our new families,” he said. “I can do this without reservation; I know both of these families will be tremendous additions to these neighborhoods.”

Dorjee Wangdak and Elias Santana each spoke very briefly, thanking Habitat and all the volunteers on behalf of their families.

Eligible families earn 30 to 60 percent of area median income and pay $85,000 to $90,000 for their house. The local Habitat chapter builds homes mostly in the Hill and Newhallville.

Elias and Maria Santana and their daughter, who’s 8, will be moving from an apartment in Church Street South. Wangdak and his wife, Tsering Choedak, and their 4-year-old daughter, Tenzin, are currently living with her parents in Hamden and expect to move into their new home in December.

The dedication ended with the traditional feast, as the families and volunteers appreciated another job well done.

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posted by: Local Resident on November 24, 2010  2:14pm

Does Habitat still have anti-gay hiring policies?

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