Habitat Dedication 'Overwhelming' to New Homeowners

Sometimes, even filling out paperwork is emotional.

That was the case on Thursday when Tina Steele moved one step closer to owning a house through .

“I actually cried,” Steele said. “I actually called my aunt in New York and cried. And I’m not a real emotional person, but I cried.”

Steele and Katrina Smith officially became homeowners – and next-door neighbors -  on Thursday at a dedication ceremony at their new address.

“Getting your own house built from the ground up that you actually helped (build) gives you more pride,” Steele said. “My son is so excited.”

Daivon, 11, Steele’s son, had plenty of excitement on Thursday. There was his new house, but also a dunk tank at the event, which he thoroughly enjoyed, because he drenched Habitat intern Mark Hansen at least eight times.

Steele, who worked at the house two weekdays each week for three hours, and eight hours on Saturdays, participated in her second Habitat project after she contributed to the Stonehenge project in West Athens last year.

“I’ve learned a whole lot more than I did on the first house,” Steele said. “I even bought a drill. Maybe I can do my own repairs.”

A process that began two years ago by filling out a form, and writing a letter, ended on Thursday with balloons on their mailboxes, grilled hamburgers, a dunk tank, face painting, family, friends and volunteers. Steele and Smith, both single mothers and their combined three sons, received keys to the houses at the dedication ceremony, and plan to finish their moving process by this weekend.

“To actually see that’s it’s here is really overwhelming,” said Smith, who works at Wayne Farms. “When we first came here and did the ground blessing, there was nothing here at all, I mean nothing. To actually see a house here that I worked on every week and did, I mean, it’s unbelievable.”

A “ground blessing” for the houses was on Sept. 10, 2010. The has owned the land since it was donated 17 years ago, director Spencer Frye said. Steele and Smith’s new street, Carpenter's Circle, is off of Burney Street in East Athens inside the State Route 10 Loop Bypass.

Kim Woolbright, the public outreach director for Habitat, said crime has “dropped drastically” in the area since building began. Frye and Woolbright said Habitat has purchased land on Simmons Street northwest of Carpenter's Circle.

At the event, representatives from Emmanuel Episcopal Church and the University of Georgia’s Housing 4 Housing program, in conjunction with Women Build, a partner of Habitat, sponsored the homes. Frye said a sponsorship costs $67,000. Habitat then sells the house and land to the homeowner through a 25-year loan at zero interest with payments at $213 per month.

“Our homeowners are hard-working individuals,” Frye said. “They’re stable, they have good credit. They just don’t make enough to buy a house in Athens.”

Steele and Smith both worked on the houses during construction. Steele, who is a cook at Athens Regional Medical Center, worked Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Smith worked every Saturday.

“I don’t care if it rained, we would still be out here working and doing stuff,” Smith said. “Hot, cold, it doesn’t matter. Bundled, we still came out here to work.”

Frye said Habitat’s Family Selection Committee has the toughest job of any in the organization. One misconception is this isn’t a first-time home buyer program, he said, it’s an eradicate sub-standard housing program.

That’s why the only day that topped Thursday for Smith was the day she was approved to own a home by Habitat.

That day didn’t have the built-in pomp and circumstance of Thursday, but she celebrated even more. Two years ago, on a Friday morning, Smith’s life changed, and she couldn’t contain her excitement.

“I was jumping up and down, running through the halls, running outside, I was so happy,” said Smith, a single mother of two boys, Ki’Morris and Ki’Yonnice. “I called everybody in my family to let them know I got approved through Habitat.”

On average, Frye said Habitat builds four to five houses per year, but is “scraping” for a third this year. He said media reports of the slumping housing industry caused a drop in applications recently, and the general economic downturn has made it difficult to get donations from sponsors.

“In a booming economy, the $67,000 donation isn’t such a big deal,” Frye said.

Frye said the street where Smith and Steele moved in has room for five more houses, and there are plans to start the next house in August as part of a neighborhood revitalization effort.

Under the ReNew Athens Initiative, Habitat bought five duplexes on Simmons Street, and three blocks north of Carpenter's Circle, Habitat bought a 16-unit apartment complex. Frye said Habitat tries to buy houses where drug dealers operate, and displace them. The goal is to renovate multi-family units into single-family homes.

“Sometimes you can’t describe it,” Steele said. “Because I’ve been wanting to have a home for a long time.”