Ecolab volunteers are affordable housing advocates

New home construction on Burgess Street is moving along quickly as volunteer crews from Ecolab continue their eight-week sponsorship of this house. 

Site Supervisor Katie Ulwelling reports the first floor walls and second floor trusses are set and half of the exterior walls of the second floor are completed. Volunteers are now working to build a staircase from the first floor to the second, and have been making steady progress despite Mother Nature’s best efforts. 

“We’ve had to clean up early a few days because of the heat and we had to cancel one day for rain,” Katie said. 

Homebuyer Than Tee is also on site for the next two weeks. He will purchase the three-bedroom house with his wife Khin Sai. The couple came to the U.S. from Burma in 2004 and hopes their new home will be a stable place to raise their children, 6-year-old Nay and 5-year-old Thu. 

“I’ve been measuring, cutting and nailing,” Than said. “I’ve been doing whatever needs to be done.” 

In addition to his own, he’s worked on two other Habitat houses in St. Paul and one in Brooklyn Park. “This is really, really, really exciting,” he said of his new home. 

Affordable and sustainable housing is a focus area for the community giving program at Ecolab.

Since 2002, Ecolab has supported the work of Twin Cities Habitat, not only through grants from the Ecolab Foundation, but also volunteer efforts of Ecolab associates who look forward to yearly opportunities to work on a summer-long Habitat project in St. Paul. 

If you'd like to learn how your business or corporation can support Habitat's affordable housing program, please visit our website.