Habitat brings more humanity for Irma Castillo

The ongoing saga of Irma Castillo’s hundred-year home on Broadway, which was near collapse just a year ago, is moving toward a happy ending.|

The ongoing saga of Irma Castillo’s 100-year-old home on Broadway, which was near collapse just a year ago, is moving toward a happy ending. Habitat for Humanity, the noted nonprofit that helps put people to work building homes for their community, has agreed to take over the final stage of Castillo’s home rescue – rebuilding the front porch, beginning with a Bank of America Corporate Build Day on Thursday, Sept. 29.

Tamara Stanley of Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County was alerted to Castillo’s situation by Patricia Shults of the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce, when the two met to discuss neighborhood revitalization projects. “It was one of the things that spoke to us,” said Stanley. “We’re looking to increase our impact in Sonoma County, and when we were talking about wanting to do more neighborhood revitalization, that project come to her mind.”

Shults had just read the July 5 article in the Index-Tribune about the struggles that Castillo, and the team of volunteers who have been laboring since last October, have faced to complete the reconstruction. Castillo’s home was red-tagged as uninhabitable by the City’s Building Inspector in July of 2015, but her struggles provoked a community reaction that ultimately led the city to back away from evicting her, and sparked community efforts to rehabilitate her home of 40 years.

However, the overwhelming task taxed even the most devoted supporters, which included contractor David Dikinis and a corps of other volunteers who worked to remodel the run-down two-bedroom home. The back entry steps, the bathroom, a number of foundation piers and, most crucially, the dilapidated front porch still posed a daunting challenge.

“I had previous experience with Habitat in another area,” said Shults, who came to Sonoma from Austin in 2014. “I thought Habitat might be just the community partner to come in and get the project completed.” Shults put Stanley in touch with Dikinis, the contractor who has been managing Castillo’s home reconstruction.

Habitat’s mission seemed a perfect fit.

“Neighborhood revitalization has become quite a big project with Habitats nationally. This affiliate hasn’t had an opportunity to tap into that yet, but we’re ready for it,” said Stanley, who formerly worked at Hanna Boys Center.

The result is that Habitat will be partnering with one of its sponsors, the Bank of America, to hold a Corporate Build Day at Castillo’s home on Thursday, Sept. 29, a sort of teambuilding project. About 20 bank volunteers are expected to start work at 9:30 a.m. that day, working alongside Dikinis and Habitat’s construction foreman Stan Anderson.

“I am very much looking forward to working with them on Irma’s home,” said Dikinis, of the anticipated assistance from Habitat for Humanity.

The local Habitat is one of hundreds of domestic affiliates associated with the international organization, founded in 1976. Most of their projects offer “sweat-equity” support in building homes, but they also do home repair services for Sonoma County homeowners whose household income is below 80 percent of the Area Median Income, at the “extremely low” level of affordability.

Castillo qualified under those terms. She’s also received support from Rotary of Sonoma Valley, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, and a loyal team of community volunteers.

Meanwhile work at Irma Castillo’s home on Broadway continues. This week a team from Upscale Construction, a San Francisco-based contractor that does a lot of work for “high-end” customers in Sonoma County, is on the property rebuilding the structural piers and back-door access. Like Shults and Stanley, their local program manager Kent Cotter read about Castillo’s plight in the Index-Tribune, and convinced his bosses to donate labor and materials for the effort.

“The owner of the company and they said, ‘Yeah, let’s do something for the community and help her out,’” said Cotter. He said the company was paying the laborers – “it’s hard to get carpenters to volunteer for that much work, you just couldn’t do it in a day, or even a week” – and the total donation will could be as much as $20,000.

The Upscale team has been there this week and will probably be there next, as well. They are replacing stairs and siding, pouring the back concrete pad, replacing rotted piers and even putting in a new walk-in shower – long on the 85-year-old widow’s wish-list.

Though the Bank of America teambuilding exercise will only last a single day, the effort to provide a comfortable, up-to-code home for Castillo will probably continue for at least a couple months longer, with Habitat and Sonoma volunteers, Tuesdays through Saturday until the work is finished.

Stanley pointed out that volunteers are always needed for Habitat projects, and people don’t necessarily have to have a particular skill – foreman Anderson is adept at finding a task to match a volunteer’s experience. “People can actually put their skills to work and make a difference in someone’s life,” said Stanley.

Anyone interested in volunteering with Habitat on this or other projects should contact Ché Casul, the organization’s community development manager, at volunteer@habitatsoco.org.

Gary Edwards, the Sonoma City Council member who brought Castillo’s plight to the attention of the Index-Tribune, also cultivated Rotary support. “We all put in a few bucks to make it happen,” he said modestly. “We gave her a little Rotary medallion, which she carries around now.

“Which is kind of a beautiful thing.”

Contact Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.

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