Jimmy Carter is being remembered not only as the 39th president of the United States, but for his work after leaving office.

Here in Southwest Michigan, Harbor Habitat for Humanity builds about five homes per year so working class buyers can experience home ownership without spending more than 30% of their income on the mortgage, taxes, and insurance. Habitat Michigan President Don Wilkinson tells us it’s been about 20 years since Carter’s Habitat for Humanity came to the region.

“So in 2005, Benton Harbor and Detroit actually combined to do a Jimmy Carter Work Project.” Wilkinson said. “And that year, in 2005, they built a total in Michigan of 234 homes. The majority of those would have been built in Benton Harbor and in the Detroit area.”

It started with 200 homes in the two cities then.

Wilkinson says Carter started Habitat for Humanity in 1984 after seeing the effects of high housing prices on many in the middle class, and each year, they’d seek out partners to get started in a new area.

“Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter both worked on site. Jimmy Carter was usually the first one there in the morning and the last one to leave in the evening. And he worked all day long on homes, not just talking to people, but actually swinging a hammer.”

Carter came to Benton Harbor in 2005 when the Habitat building blitz started. In addition to building new homes in several countries, Habitat for Humanity has renovated more than 4,400 homes.

Now that Carter has died at the age of 100, Wilkinson says Habitat’s mission won’t end. He tells us work is underway right now to prepare for the next Benton Harbor build. He credits Whirlpool with being a major boost to the Harbor Habitat program, noting it provides many of the volunteers who help build habitat homes.