MARMORA — Chelsea and Jackson soon will have a home to call their own thanks to Habitat for Humanity Cape May County, which broke ground on its 20th new house Aug. 25 at 104 E. Ocean Ave.

Gathering with the soon-to-be homeowners were officials of the organization and many of its volunteers, who not only build but also operate its home improvement ReStore at 20 Court House-South Dennis Road.

“This is possible because all of you believe in what we do,” Executive Director Sarah Matthews told the gathered crowd, citing the “generosity of Upper Township” in granting the property and three others — one just across the street where its next build will take place.

Both sites have been cleared and one awaits a date with a backhoe. Matthews said a modular home is expected to be delivered in about a month. In the meantime, the foundation will be built and utilities prepared for connection.

Matthews talked about the families who can’t find affordable rentals and are forced to spend an exorbitant amount of their income on housing, leaving them struggling to pay for food, utilities and health care.

“Today we have one less family to have to worry about,” she said.

“This is such a blessing,” single mother Chelsea Berkey said, standing at the podium with Jackson, a rising fourth-grader at Upper Township Primary School. “We are overwhelmed and excited.”

Berkey said her mother has been involved with Habitat for Humanity, never expecting her daughter would one day benefit from its efforts to provide affordable housing and foster homeownership.

Berkey, who grew up in South Dennis and attended Middle Township High School, said a series of misfortunes set her back financially.

“When COVID hit, it really hit us hard. I was laid off from my corporate job in which I was able to make ends meet on a single income. They eliminated my position,” Berkey said. “Just after that, Jackson was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which is an extremely difficult and expensive disease to manage.”

Berkey said she and her son have been living in a small rental but the rent has more than doubled since 2020. She said getting a home means she won’t have to deal with the high cost of rent and will be able to raise her son in the county where her five siblings live.

“We can actually take pride that this is our house and we get to take care of it, and stay in the community that I grew up in,” she said, noting Jackson was born in California but she moved back to Cape May County to raise him here.

“We really thought we were going to have to move out of New Jersey altogether,” she said. “It would have been really hard because we would have been moving away from not only our family and friends but his medical care team as well.”

She is excited to plant a garden and live in a neighborhood where her son has friends and can ride his bike around safely. 

Representing the Cape May County Board of Commissioners, E. Marie Hayes presented the family with a proclamation.

“Thank you to all of the volunteers who make this all happen,” Hayes said.

Now that ground has been broken in a ceremonial shoveling, “this is when finally the rubber meets the road,” Matthews said, calling it a great milestone for the organization.

West Cape May resident Dave Hammond, president of the board, said the home would be Habitat Cape May County’s first modular.

“We’ve been kicking it around for several years and decided to see how it worked, whether the time was quicker and we could build more houses, whether it was cheaper or about the same amount of money. This is an experiment,” he said.

Modular homes are built in a warehouse and shipped to the site, where the two halves are joined, meaning the organization would be paying for labor. Hammond said some Habitat chapters build exclusively modular and that there certainly are some advantages. Whether it would be quicker remains in question, though, since he said they ordered the home in February and it is yet to be delivered.

“We want to keep moving as fast as possible because there is such a need, and for us to make a dent we need to be building and then building again,” Matthews said, noting they now have the ability to “keep rolling into the next one” now that a third party is providing mortgages.

The new home at 104 E. Ocean Ave. is perhaps several months away from completion. Matthews said the foundation will be built soon and the home should be delivered in September.

“We’ve got enough work in the modular for volunteers,” she said, noting they will need help with flooring, trim, painting, siding and building decks.

Matthews said she is hoping for completion before Thanksgiving and certainly before the end of the year.

Hammond said the home across the street would be stick-built because it is going to be ADA-compliant.

“It’s going to be kind of a special thing. We are looking forward to doing it with a roll-in shower and things,” he said.

By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff

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