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'Sweat equity' helps provide new home
By CHRISTOPHER SPENCER EL DORADO -- As Lillie Green stood in her cramped, two-bedroom mobile home, ankle-deep water covering the floor, she knew that she had to get out. If not for herself, then for her children. A water hose leading to the washing machine had burst while the Green family was at church that Sunday morning, and by the time they returned home, the water was everywhere and stood several inches deep. While staying with relatives, the family waited for the insurance money to arrive; money which would let them resume their lives with some degree of normalcy. Along with a check for $200, came a cancellation notice, she said. Green, a single mother of three children, knew that the $200 would do little to bring her home back to its original condition. With large water spots, and weakened timbers in the floor, Green, an employee of Employment Security Division for over 20 years, tried to piece-meal wooden timbers and repairs as best she could on her limited budget. Unable to make proper repairs to the trailer's floor, it wasn't long before the weakened floor began to fall in, and rot away. But, trapped by economic circumstances, the family of four was unable to move elsewhere. That was five years ago, she said, now things are different. Green and her family -- two daughters, Brittany and Adrienne and son, Brian -- recently attended a ceremony dedicating a newly-built house, their house. Built with their own hands and with the help and effort of El Dorado's Habitat for Humanity, it will be a special moment for the family. A moment that almost didn't come. Although Green had heard about Habitat five years ago from a friend, she didn't think it would do her family any good. Instead, she did what she could to dress up their deteriorating trailer, and make it as presentable as possible. The turning point came when some of Brittany's classmates started teasing the young girl about the condition of her house. Ashamed and embarrassed, Brittany told her mother what was happening. "I'm like the Rock of Gibraltar," Green said, "but when it comes to my kids I come unglued." Unable to secure a loan from a bank to build or buy a house, she knew of only one alternative, Habitat for Humanity. So, she went down and got an application for Habitat's program, filled it out and sent it in. But what Green didn't know was that Brittany had also sent in a letter of her own, telling the local chapter of Habitat what her family's situation was like. Five weeks later Green heard from Pat Callaway, chairperson of the family selection committee. It's a moment that Green remembers only in snippets, so shocked was she when Callaway told her she had been selected to receive a home. But receiving a home, according to Habitat, does not mean a handout. It means being given the opportunity to buy your own home. It's not a handout, it's a hand-up, goes the organization's unofficial motto. And it quickly became apparent to Green that it wouldn't be easy. The house was a charred shell, just a wooden skeleton which had been ravaged by fire. In a system called "sweat equity," future homeowners are required to work at least 500 hours on Habitat projects. So, Green and her family rolled up their sleeves and did just that. On weekends and off-hours, the team of volunteers worked. Amid the sounds of construction, and 10-year-old son, Brian, showing off his new room to anyone within earshot, the house slowly began to take form, looking less like an outline and more like the four-bedroom, two-bath home they would live in, as the months passed. "I never saw it as poles, it was always a house to me," Green said. "I just said, we've got work to do, and that's what we did." In all, the family worked over 300 hours. In the latter part of May, the Green family received a key to the developing house, so they could put finishing touches on the house in their spare time. "I remember one day, when I went inside the house and turned on the air-conditioning. For me, that was when it became a home," Green stated. Today, when the family officially receives the home at the dedication ceremony, it will be a culmination of many hours of strenuous labor.
Once she accepts the house, Green will be accepting the house's mortgage. An interest-free debt, which will be paid out every month for the next 20 years. It is the 14th house that Habitat has built locally, and the note Excited, happy and relieved to be finished, still Green is a bit sad to see it all end. "Its been such a fantastic experience. ... you just meet so many people," she said. "It's been a lot of hard work, but its been filled with joy." The joy found in helping someone, the joy of people working together in the spirit of goodwill, it's these emotions which created this home, says Green. And, of course, the joy in owning one's own home, adds Green, is part of it. A goal, which for too long had seemed like only a dream to her. "Habitat looks at need rather than finances ... Habitat provided another way for us." Anyone interested in more information about Habitat for Humanity can contact Sue Ellen Dillard at 862-7170.
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