Habitat for Humanity East Bay

Edes Avenue Dedication

September 11th, 2010

A crowd of over 300 traveled to East Oakland last Saturday the 11th of September to celebrate a burgeoning new community where there once was a brownfield site with toxic substance in the soil. Community members, city and public officials, and volunteers joined homeowners at the Edes Avenue development in celebration of Habitat for Humanity’s largest and greenest development to date in California, as well as the completion of Habitat East Bay’s 250th home.

Attendees enjoyed snow cones, popcorn, a catered lunch, and the smooth Calypso sounds of Steel Drum Connection while Habitat East Bay volunteers and staff led green home tours and answered questions about the process of owning a Habitat home. An AmeriCorps group from Playworks, a non-profit that provides community enrichment to children through organized recreation, provided logistical support and entertained attendees with an array of games and activities, giving the dedication at Edes Avenue a carnival-like feel.

Once a nursery, then an auto salvage yard before being largely abandoned to urban neglect, the site at Edes Avenue is now home to thriving families. Single-father, Marvis McCladdie, recalled for the assembled audience his promise to his young daughters of a new life in a new home, a promise he kept through sweat equity alongside "Habitat’s commitment to turn that which wasn’t into that which is."

The completion of Edes Avenue heralds the end of a long road to home, a journey that began with the acquisition of the site in 2002. Since that time 12,000 volunteers tallied some 125,000 hours at the 3.8 acre site, which was host to 3 consecutive Build-A-Thons from 2007 to 2009, and represents the joint efforts of a host of corporate and government entities working in concert to see this challenging $17.7 million project come to fruition. Grant funding from the EPA, for example, working in partnership with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control allowed the removal of 78,000 cubic feet of contaminated soil, while the "Builder’s Blitz" in 2006 with KB and Pulte homes got the development off the ground and running by completely framing six of the homes in just two weeks.

The result, as Congresswomen Barbara Lee announced to the audience seated on the central green, surrounded by houses rated LEED Platinum, the highest rating offered by the US Green Building Council, is a "testament to Habitat for Humanity’s investment in people," proof that "once again in my congressional district we are setting the standard."

To close the ceremony, the Nerayo/Ghebremeskel family was presented with a ceremonial key to their own home, which is Habitat East Bays 250th completed to date. Teebe Nerayo thanked the audience for joining them on this momentous day for her and her family, and spoke of her personal struggle as an immigrant to the United States and eventual triumph in attaining Habitat home, concluding with a sentiment that was surely on the mind of many: "It is great to live in a home, it is great to live in a community."