Julie Schmillen

Photo: Kris Kathmann

2nd Place: Business Person of the year 2014

Executive director of Mankato-based nonprofit has successfully helped more than 100 families in 12 area cities construct new homes.

Our second place finisher for Business Person of the Year, Julie Schmillen, executive director of Habitat for Humanity South Central Minnesota, grew up in St. James, Minnesota, and spent her early years learning to work and serving others. Her father and uncle owned Schmidt’s Bakery, a special stop for serious sugarphiles pining for deep-fried doughnuts, delicious desserts, and doughy breads. She began working for the family small business about age 11.

As for her acquired work ethic, 58-year-old Schmillen said in a Connect Business Magazine interview from her Bassett Drive office in Mankato, “The bakery is now in the third generation of family ownership. My brother and cousin own it today. When starting out, I frosted doughnuts, packaged buns and cookies, swept floors, and cleaned counters. As a teenager, I clerked up front and drove the bun wagon.” Her father had a six-day-a-week work regimen that began every morning at 2:00 a.m.

As for serving others, she had an early eye for those in need. In her high school physical education class, for example, her teacher asked her one day to come alongside a classmate with a learning disability who was being picked on by other girls. Schmillen told these girls to leave her friend alone. As she embraced and tutored her classmate, the other girls eventually quieted.

Schmillen hasn’t changed one bit. Today, she still has what she calls a “German work ethic” and for years has been a trustworthy advocate for good people needing a gentle hand up. Those two qualities have been her calling card.

Since 1990, Habitat for Human South Central Minnesota has helped build 107 homes for families in twelve southern Minnesota communities, and of those, Schmillen has been involved in about 100. In 2007, she helped start the Mankato Restore retail outlet, which recycles building materials for public sale. More recently, she obtained 1.9 acres for a planned 15,500 sq. ft. warehouse/headquarters across from the current Bassett Drive location. In April 2013, Habitat for Humanity Minnesota honored her team with a “Best Practices in Restore Management, Highest Sales Growth Award.”

Just remember: each new Habitat-built home represents a dramatically changed family.

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Schmillen left her parents and siblings for Minnesota State in 1974 to major in social work. She said, “But then I had a sociology professor named Helen Duncan. She was my advisor and favorite professor and I eventually changed my major to sociology, in part because of her influence. Even today, we have been in a book group together since 1992 in Mankato called the Wolf Gang, a name derived from the book, Women Who Run With the Wolves. Helen has always been a close friend and been a wonderful mentor. We just bonded, she’s easy to talk to, and she is brilliant.”

A sociology degree was appealing because it could be used later to land a position with a nonprofit organization, she said, rather than a government desk job from a social work degree. To finish her degree, she transferred to University of Minnesota-Duluth and after graduation in 1979 returned with her husband to the Mankato area, where he had a sales position with Firestone.

“I found a job as an outreach worker with Minnesota Valley Action Council,” said Schmillen, “and did home visits in Nicollet and Brown Counties. I educated families on the availability of energy assistance, Head Start, and weatherization help. One woman’s biggest complaint was that her toddler was falling through the floor of their mobile home. That experience struck me on how critical housing was for families.”

In 1980, she began working for the City of New Ulm housing department to administer Section 8 housing vouchers and a block grant program to fix up homes in certain areas. It was a valuable experience that continued until the birth of her first child in 1982, after which she stayed home a couple years to raise her children. Over time, she started working again part-time with people with developmental disabilities.

All her experience prepared her for her next challenge. From 1990-96, she was director of Overcoming Poverty Together (OPT), a nonprofit advocacy group providing vouchers to Mankato-area homeless people seeking to get out of poverty. She said, “We had so many homeless coming to us because the homeless shelters in Mankato were full. Theresa House wasn’t open yet. We were getting State vouchers for overnight stays at hotels. OPT evolved into the housing mission and from 1993-96 was partially funded by Minnesota Housing Partnership. I was contracted as the network coordinator to provide advocacy and technical assistance, and increase housing capacity for south-central Minnesota. Then in 1996, I saw an ad in the paper for Habitat for Humanity, which was trying to hire its first staff person. I interviewed and started in August in Mankato.”

Schmillen has held the same position since. When she began, the local organization was building only its sixth and seventh homes in St. Peter/Mankato. She started as the first staff person with a challenge of having to raise enough funds to pay off a $40,000 bank note, complete two homes, and cover her own salary. By 2013, Habitat South Central Minnesota would end up building 107 homes in twelve cities and have a Restore in Mankato.

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Schmillen said, “Habitat for Humanity (mainly) is for people earning minimum wage up to $11 or so an hour. Habitat is not a free program. We like to say it’s a hand up, not a handout. A person buying a Habitat home has to work for it—they have to put in their own sweat equity. Our zero percent interest with no cash down makes buying the home affordable. They sign a 30-year mortgage like anyone else and it’s recorded at the courthouse. Families are required to make monthly house payments for 30 years.”

Habitat for Human South Central Minnesota, which covers Blue Earth, Nicollet, Sibley, Le Sueur, and Watonwan Counties, is one of 32 Habitat-affiliated organizations in Minnesota, including nearby ones in Martin/Faribault Counties, Waseca/Steele Counties, and Minnesota Valley (New Ulm). It doesn’t accept any government money.

The local group’s mission statement reads: “Habitat for Humanity of South Central Minnesota is a nonprofit Christian housing ministry dedicated to building simple, decent, and affordable housing with and for families in need.” The international organization has offices in Americus and Atlanta, Georgia.

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Each year, Habitat for Humanity South Central Minnesota selects up to eight families for homes from among nearly 200 applicants. The organization has a 10-page application and does credit checks. Only families with good credit scores receive consideration. Habitat for Humanity South Central Minnesota carries the mortgages.

Said Schmillen, “In order for families to qualify, we don’t want more than 30 percent of their income going to their house payment. Our payments are $500-$600 a month. We set up an escrow account to pay their taxes and insurance. We pick families that have a good chance to succeed because we can’t afford to have delinquencies.”

After choosing a family, the local Habitat hires out excavating, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing work, and seeks discounts from lumber companies. Local Habitat volunteers provide an average of 10,000 hours of free labor building each home. If the family receiving the new home has only one adult, that adult must spend 200 volunteer hours volunteering to build their own home. If it has two adults, then 400 hours are required. The new owners must take out a second mortgage—also carried by the local Habitat—that prevents the owners from making a windfall profit off a premature sale.

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Just remember: each new Habitat-built home represents a dramatically changed family. Schmillen said one family living in a Mankato mobile home in 2012 had four children, including a set of twins. The twins were being hospitalized for respiratory problems, such as asthma and allergies, due to mold in the mobile home. Schmillen asked the construction manager to place that particular family at the top of the list for construction because of the health risk. (In 2004, Schmillen’s son Ben was hired by the board of directors as the construction manager and has built more than 70 Habitat homes.)

She said, “Normally, we build the homes for people in the order of selection. There were a couple families ahead of them, but I told the construction manager to build theirs first after the twins were hospitalized again. When the home was finished, we had a dedication. It was a joyous event. We invited the neighbors and everyone that had helped build the home. The kids looked really happy.”

Another Habitat family in Mankato had a single mother and a toddler boy. Their apartment building had obvious drug transactions going on in the parking lot, no place to play, and neighbor kids were shooting pellet guns when her boy was playing outside. Also, drug odors were wafting through the vents from adjoining apartments.

Said Schmillen, “That woman wanted something better for her boy. She was going to school and wanted a good future. She knew she didn’t want to raise her son there.”

Yet another family helped included a Sudanese woman whose husband had died in an automobile accident. She was trying to raise seven children in a cramped apartment. While the Sudanese woman worked to earn a living, her mother was helping with daycare. Now those children have their own home and yard to play in.

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“In 1996, when I started,” said Schmillen, “I would get telephone calls from various people in the community, from do-it-yourselfers to contractors to lumber yards, wanting to donate leftover building products. They would say something like, ‘We have one window that just doesn’t fit and the store won’t take it back.’ Or we would have a half bundle of shingles left over after a build. I started throwing all these odds and ends into a warehouse. I also would get all these hodgepodge donations. I kept taking the donations because I thought we might be able to use them some day at the jobsite.”

In 2004, Schmillen visited Habitat Restores in Winona and Austin that were reselling home building materials to the general public as a means to raise funds, giving local homeowners low-cost buying options, and keeping home building materials out of landfills. A year later, she attended Restore training, met Restore managers from across the U.S., and learned best practices to open and run a store. In May 2007, Habitat for Humanity South Central Minnesota opened its own 7,700 sq. ft. Restore at 1751 Bassett Drive.

By 2013, the local Restore was doing more than $250,000 in sales and desperately needing more room. The solution involved Schmillen and her board purchasing 1.9 acres across the street and planning a 15,500 sq. ft. expansion plan that involved using I&S Group. The new building will be financed, in part, with about $550k in equity from the first building, $150k from an Anne Chesley Herlihy trust fund, and $430k from a fundraising campaign.

She said, “Restore is a win-win for everyone. We have prevented more than 700 tons of stuff from going into landfills. Donors get a tax write-off. We earn money and use that to build more homes for families. Our Restore customers get discounted product are sprucing up their homes to increase the tax base.” In April 2013, Habitat for Humanity Minnesota honored its Mankato-based affiliate with a “Best Practices in Restore Management, Highest Sales Growth Award.”

Recent growth in Habitat home building was helped along by the purchase of three acres in Sibley Park on Rogers Street. Schmillen had been after the vacant property eleven years. Each year, she would send a letter and telephone the owner, politely asking him to sell. One year, he agreed. Twelve of the thirteen lots to date on that property have Habitat-built homes.

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Habitat Genesis

According to Julie Schmillen, Habitat for Humanity South Central Minnesota unofficially began at a First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) weekend retreat in 1989. The minister asked members to break up into small groups to discuss ideas about using their Christian faith to meet community needs. Dean Otto had the idea of starting a habit in Mankato after hearing Ogden Confer tell stories of driving up to Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity and volunteering.

Otto was excited about possibilities in Mankato and through a newspaper ad promoted an informational meeting. To soften the blow, his parents showed up because they thought no one else would.

About eight people showed at the downtown library for the first meeting, and by 1990 the organization was a 501 3(c) and had successful fundraising efforts netting needed dollars. Older men nicknamed “The Old Fuds” carried out volunteer home building projects in Mankato.

From 1989-1996, the board literally did everything to keep the local Habitat going—all without the benefit of an executive director. Board members paid bills, did construction work, organized fundraisers, and answered telephone calls and inquiries.

Said Schmillen, “It had become way too much for them. After I was hired, we moved the office to 512 Mulberry at the St. Peter’s and Paul’s nunnery, and stayed there until the current building on Bassett Drive was built in 2007.”

Friendly Habitat

In 1997, Julie Schmillen and 2,000 other Habitat volunteers arrived in six Kentucky and Tennessee counties to help Habitat families build 50 homes. Her particular assignment was a group of homes in Beattyville, Kentucky, where Schmillen was assigned to media duties and acted as a buffer between former President Jimmy Carter and newspaper reporters. She also did construction work.

She said, “Jimmy was personable, hardworking, and went to all 50 homes. Along with his wife, he came to our site for a week. Habitat for Humanity International founder Millard Fuller was there, too. Jimmy spoke several times talking about the importance of giving, community, work ethic, and volunteerism. He was an interesting man who, for the most part, wanted to pick up his hammer and be left alone.”

Habitat On Oprah

Said Julie Schmillen, Habitat for Humanity South Central Minnesota executive director: “Oprah sent a video crew to Mankato in 1997 to interview one of our Habitat homeowners. On her show, she showed the interview and the family’s home dedication. My face was on Oprah. Though having been on KEYC-TV Channel 12 many times, I guess my claim to fame really has been being on Oprah.”

Getting to know you: Julie Schmillen

Born: November 28, 1955.

Education: St. James High School ‘74; and University of Minnesota-Duluth ‘79, sociology major.

Family: husband, Robert; children, Benjamin and Ashley.

THE ESSENTIALS

Habitat for Humanity South Central Minnesota

Phone: 507-388-2081

Address: 1751 Bassett Drive, Mankato, MN 56001

Web: hfhsouthcentral.net