WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — The organization that builds strength, stability and self-reliance with families needs more people to be part of its mission.

Will Goodner, Habitat for Humanity’s Director of Marketing and Development with the nonprofit, said it takes three things to keep opening doors.

Families in need, donations from the community and volunteers, right now they need the latter.

Shannon Jackson said he grew up in the Kemp Edition and has witnessed the change over the years.

“I can remember when there was a house on every lot in this neighborhood, times changed and people died off and they left their houses to the family members,” Jackson said. “And a lot of them got torn down and habitat by the grace of God came in and started revitalizing the neighborhood.”

Jackson who is also a Habitat for Humanity board member said he’s happy and grateful for this.

“The American dream supposedly is to own a home so here we are providing homes for people that maybe could not otherwise afford it,” Jackson said.

“We’re here to help the lower-income families that aren’t able to go to normal mortgage lending company and get a home loan,” Goodner said.

He said they would generally get a few checks in the mail but they’ve gotten scarce and in addition to the constant need for volunteers the biggest challenge they have faced is the cost of construction materials.

“Especially lumber, generally it takes about $7,000 of lumber to build a home it will triple putting that number at around $21,000,” Goodner said.

And since they’ve seen expenses go up and donations decrease, it’s obviously causing a financial strain.

“Generally we would build three to four per year, the restore was running along smoothly that’s our number one fundraiser and we had volunteers,” Goodner said.

The pandemic shook things up even more only allowing them to build one home and complete another.

“The main thing was volunteers, everything was shut down, people were in fear of the virus so we were unable to accept volunteers and [for] our own employee safely we weren’t really doing anything,” Goodner said.

Through volunteerism and donations, Texomans can assist in the ultimate goal of providing a home for those needing a permanent situation.

Volunteers with various skill sets are needed, to find out how you can help, follow this link.