Homeownership

In May, Marva Robinson stood with Jim Wells from the Lion’s Club and held a flame to her mortgage, dropping it on the pavement behind the Habitat Wake ReStore as staff and Board members applauded. “It feels good,” she says about paying off her mortgage. “I’ve achieved another goal. It was hard sometimes, but when I say I’m going do something, I’m going to do it!”

For more than four decades, Debbie rented a house in the Long Acres neighborhood located off Poole Road in Raleigh. The home was substandard in many areas, including electricity and plumbing. Debbie was more than ready to purchase a home of her own. In fact, about 10 years ago, one of Debbie’s friends encouraged her to apply for a home with Habitat. But it wasn’t until Habitat planned to build in the same neighborhood where she has lived nearly her whole life that Debbie finally applied.

As a single father to two teenagers, Ricky says his kids are his inspiration. “My son and daughter are my priority,” he says. “I want to leave something behind for them when I am gone, something my parents weren’t able to do.”

Sometimes things work out. 

As part of our Long Acres work in SE Raleigh, the City of Raleigh had acquired a house on Parnell Drive that they planned to demolish in order for Habitat to come in and put a new structure in its’ place. The home definitely needed to be demolished, but it was occupied.  As with any federal grant, there were provisions to financially compensate the occupants for relocation.