Dave Gaffin has been volunteering for Habitat Philadelphia on almost every Saturday for the past 14 years. He began as a student completing community service hours for school and decided to continue on. During the week Dave works as an architect at Studio Tagland but on the weekends he dedicates his time to the construction of Habitat homes. Dave also serves on the Acquisition and Construction Committee for Habitat which helps purchase land to build on. When I asked Dave what he thinks the significance of Habitat Philadelphia is he replied, “It’s about rebuilding the community and getting the community back on its feet. Seeing the home dedications is really the culmination and the importance behind the things we do. It’s a great sense of satisfaction.” “If you go around the city there a lot that can be done. Rehabbing these houses and building on these vacant lots one at a time, I think it really helps. You can see around here in north Philly with all the construction going on. Our development also spawns other development.” When asked what his best memory was Dave said, “4200 block of Stiles street because it took us 10 years just to acquire the properties. We started the construction at the end of 2006 and it involved 7 row homes. It was an affordable, sustainable, and historical project that was really one of the first of its kind in the country. “Funding has always been a concern for Habitat and Dave expressed this when asked what his hopes were for Habitat in the future, “You would always like to get that big grant. We build between 10-15 homes a year but if we were to get, say 10 million dollars, we could easily do 50-100 homes.”
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| Dave Gaffin |
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| Dave stands outside the Morse St. construction site. |
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| A Habitat truck that Dave said was shot three times while on a construction site in Germantown. |
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| The bullet holes from the gunfire. |
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