Long journey ends in safe home for Habitat family

Seeking economic prosperity Paula and her daughters Anna, Juana and Gloria immigrated to California from Mexico in 1988. Due to a lack of education the only job Paula could find was picking grapes in a field six days a week. While she was hard at work her eldest daughter Gloria began to familiarize herself with the English language, later teaching it to the rest of the family. After years of manual labor Paula began to have health issues associated with constantly working in the sun. In search of better jobs and schools the family later moved to Minnesota in March of 1993.

Since coming to Minnesota the family has increased in size to six while still living in a two-bedroom apartment. Gloria, now with an infant son has spent many nights worrying about the safety of their building. Loud neighbors, frequent police visits and rodents running rampant have made the apartment no place to raise a child.

“We tried to make the most of our living conditions by cleaning our place as often as possible, says Gloria. “We prided ourselves on leaving the apartment in better shape than when we moved in.”

One day while at class Gloria voiced her displeasure to a friend and current Habitat homeowner who told her to apply to the program. After discussing with the opportunity with her mother Paula, the family applied and was accepted for a home in St. Paul. Gloria and Paula started working on their home in April 2008, and invested hundreds of hours of sweat equity doing everything from framing to hanging drywall, nailing siding, roofing work, installing cabinets and painting. They also completed eleven homebuyer education classes that included budgeting, mortgages, home maintenance and being a good neighbor.

Discussing the on-site experience, Gloria said “The staff was awesome and we got to know them well. Between the Habitat staff and the AmeriCorps members we got all our questions answered. And the volunteers were always interested in finding out about us and our home. Everyone was extremely nice.”

Their big family loves celebrating together with delicious food and dancing. Now Paula has a place where she can host these festive celebrations: “This seems unreal. I could never have imagined that I would ever own my own home, says Paula. Luckily, I found Habitat for Humanity and they have played a tremendous role in making my dream a reality.”