Benton Harbor Family Moves Into 'Buildbetter With Whirlpool' Home

June 03, 2022 at 05:00 AM EDT

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After renting a home for several years, Jasmine was ready to move into a home of her own. “Because I have six kids, my credit wasn’t great. My house had mold issues, it was located in a bad area and had been broken into multiple times,” said Jasmine. She decided she wanted something better. “I was looking for something with more stability and something I can grow with.”

Jasmine works at Whirlpool Corp., where she has been a full-time employee since 2012. Jasmine was introduced to Habitat by her cousin, who became a homeowner through the program. Seeing the beauty of her cousin’s home and hearing other stories about successful homeowners helped make Jasmine’s decision to apply easy.

Jasmine was born and raised in Benton Harbor, Michigan, where she still lives with her husband, Jimmie, and their six children: Makaihla (16), Maishaun (15), Marrieon (12), Maleyiah (11), Makyi (8), and King (5). “Home” now has a new meaning for this family of eight. “It has more room, a big yard to play in—it means a lot to them.”
Not only is Jasmine a Whirlpool Corp. employee, but her home is being built as part of Habitat for Humanity’s BuildBetter with Whirlpool initiative, an expansion of Habitat’s existing BuildBetter initiative that will build more than 250 climate-resilient and energy-efficient homes that will help hundreds of families in need of affordable housing over the next three years.

The broadened initiative sits at the heart of Whirlpool Corporation’s global corporate social responsibility approach called House + Home, that contributes to comfortable and nurturing places to live and supports resilient, thriving, and sustainable communities. Through House + Home, Whirlpool Corp. will support Habitat for Humanity in constructing homes designed to better withstand storm winds, natural disasters and other severe weather events that are intensifying.

Jasmine’s new five-bedroom home has water-conserving plumbing fixtures and above-code insulation, in addition to an energy efficiency refrigerator and range, which are donated to every Habitat-built home by Whirlpool Corp. in North America. The house also passed the Home Energy Rating System (HERS), which calculates and measures a home’s energy performance.

“It will be something I’m invested in. It will mean something to me instead of renting month to month,” said Jasmine. She plans to use home project skills she’s learned as part of helping other new Habitat homeowners build their homes, such as sanding and painting, to help maintain her new home.

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KEYWORDS: NYSE: WHR, whirlpool corporation, Habitat for Humanity, BuildBetter with Whirlpool