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family and current housingHabitat recognizes and values the stability that comes with owning a home and putting down roots, especially for children. The security of knowing they have a safe place to come home to is vitally important to a child’s growth and development. For many Habitat Partner Families, like Teaira Lightner, desiring stability for her family is the driving force behind applying. Teaira openly shared that she has moved over eight times in the past eight years. Issues including bed bugs, slum lords, and a termite infestation have led to prematurely terminated leases and continual transience for her family. Although her current rental is located in a decent neighborhood, she continues to face structural issues such as missing window screens, water damage to her son’s bedroom from an old roof leak, only one working outlet in her kitchen, and damage to the concrete block foundation resulting in water flooding the basement during a rain. Teaira decided it was time for one last move and applied for homeownership through Habitat. She eagerly looks forward to having a place where her three children, Richard and twins Royalty and Trinity, can call their forever home. Teaira was also recently granted guardianship of her younger brother, Melvin, and knows a stable home will help her best for care for him. “Having our own home means the kids can have somewhere to go when they get older even if I’m not there anymore. They will always have a place to stay.” What a blessing and place to create special memories this Habitat home will be for the Lightner family!
a bright futureSince joining the Habitat partnership, Teaira has invested numerous hours of sweat equity at ReStore, on worksites, and in House2Home education classes preparing for the transition from renter to homeowner. Although she enjoys classes and being helpful at ReStore, Teaira, like all Habitat Partner Families, is most excited for the hours she will spend building her family’s future home. Working fulltime, completing the Habitat program, and being a single mom and guardian to her brother leaves Teaira with a lot on her plate. “Getting [to Habitat] when you have three children and work fulltime, or work overtime, and trying to make ends meet, especially as a single mom, is definitely a challenge. But I’m here. There is something that motivates me every Saturday and keeps me pushing.” One of those motivations is the team of people coming together to help achieve her dream of homeownership. Teaira humbly expressed her gratitude to that team of sponsors and volunteers: “I appreciate it, I’m excited, and I thank everybody who is going to help me build my home and help my children.”
