Home for the Holidays
Carmela and her two daughters will enjoy an amazing present this Christmas: A big box wrapped in pale yellow paint, trimmed in white with a bow on top of composite shingle roofing. But like most pretty packages that we wait in lines for, work hard to afford and desire the most, Carmela knows that what’s inside the box is what really matters.
For Carmela, a goal-oriented single mother, what really matters after purchasing her Habitat for Humanity home in San Mateo is a home without restrictions. A home where her two daughters can paint their own rooms any color they choose. A home with a back and front yard where her kids can run, play and ride bikes. Most importantly, a home that allows her to live close to her cherished family and local church.
“Even my church family helped me,” Carmela says while reflecting on her “sweat equity” hours every family agrees to complete before purchasing a Habitat home. “My pastor did a blessing of the keys.”
Carmela worked towards her new home as part of Habitat Greater SF’s affordable homeownership program for local working families. After completing 500 hours of “sweat equity” on the construction site and attending a series of homebuyer readiness workshops, the family purchased the home with an affordable, zero-interest mortgage and no down payment.
The same family and local community that helped her build her new home will join her to celebrate her first Christmas dinner, choose the perfect Christmas tree, and hang their new Christmas lights around the awning. Even though those ornaments and delicious foods symbolize a great holiday season, it’s being together with her loved ones and hearing excitement from her daughters that makes Carmela bright with happiness.
“Mommy, when are we going to get our lights?” she hears her daughters asking. Before her new ownership they never had room for decorations. Carmela and her family will enjoy many new family traditions in their new Habitat home, like the joy of owning their new Cockapoo puppy named Grace and a blown up Santa on their front lawn.
However, they won’t leave behind all their traditions. “Even though they have separate rooms they still tend to sleep together,” she says. Carmela can sleep easy this holiday season knowing her girls are wrapped securely in their new home.
