How many times in life do you get to say you really made a difference in the lives of strangers? When you give a gift to Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, you get to say that frequently.
Homeownership changes lives. It builds equity, provides security, and offers opportunity. National studies have shown that homeownership positively affects children in a variety of ways. One study found that the children of homeowners are 116% more likely to graduate from college than children of renters.*
This summer Renee and her two teenage daughters, Khadijah and Amirah, moved into their new home, and their move was a short one. They previously rented a home in the Fairview neighborhood of Hillsborough and moved a few blocks to their new home on Tulip Tree Road where Habitat has been building homes and community since the fall of 2006.
Renee thinks Habitat’s presence in Fairview is a wonderful thing. Fairview is not so bad as people out there like to say, but Fairview needed some uplifting. Now we have people working hands together, making a positive change.
While the Allen home is one of an initial 18 homes Habitat is building in Fairview, their home is Habitat’s first home certified under the Home Builder’s Association of Durham, Orange, and Chatham Counties Green Building Initiative. In addition, all Habitat homes are built to Advanced Energy and Systems Visions standards for high energy efficiency.
What is good for the environment is also good for the homeowner. Previously Renee paid $250 per month in utilities. Their former home had no central air but was cooled through window units. In her new Habitat home, her monthly cooling and heating bill will be only $30.
Homeownership will change our lives and make things much easier for us. But to know that I built my home with my own hands for my children – that’s rewarding. I plan to remain with Habitat long after my home is built.
Renee is thankful for the many hardworking, always smiling, volunteers and generous donors who make Habitat possible. With your help, she is building a home of peace and love, inside and out.
*Boehm, Thomas P. and Alan Schlottmann, “Does Family Ownership by Parents Have an Economic Impact on Their Children?” Department of Finance, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, 1999.
