The Volunteering Page of Tyler Courtney

family and current housing
Like many of our Partner Families, Brent Byrd applied to the Habitat homeownership program hoping to secure safe, stable, and affordable housing for his family. Brent, a single father, and his two daughters currently live in the first floor of a rental home in Massillon. The home was built in the 1800s and is certainly showing its age. Brent chose to move to this rental over a year ago because he was without a car and needed to be closer to the bus line for transportation to work. Shortly after moving in, he discovered that the previous renters had dogs and left the home infested with mites. He spent his own money to get them exterminated and thankfully has not had a problem with them since. The shower head in the bath is faulty and literally sprays water all over the bathroom even though Brent has attempted to fix it himself. This, combined with a lack of bathroom vent, has resulted in a persistent mold problem. The kitchen faucet is also broken and only the hand spray works. Brent explained that the home is also always very cold in all rooms but the living room. For this reason, he has blankets hung in the doorways to help contain the heat in the living room where they spend most of their time during the winter months. Because their unit is the downstairs of an old house, it has an open floorplan and the blankets also serve as doors to create two “bedrooms.” Wanting to purchase a home better suited to his family and budget, his interest was piqued when a coworker explained to him how the Habitat homeownership program works. Brent says he is mostly doing this for the sake of his children. Thirteen year old Labella enjoys watching Anime (Japanese animated television) and is teaching herself Japanese. Her little sister, Isabella, taught herself to play the clarinet and is now in the school band. Brent is so proud of both girls and ready to provide them with a better home. a

bright future
Like all of our Partner Families, Brent is working hard to provide this housing opportunity to his family. Throughout his time in the Habitat program, Brent has and continues to invest numerous hours of sweat equity on worksites, at ReStore, and in House2Home education classes.  Along with completing Habitat requirements and raising his girls, Brent works hard to financially provide for his family as a STNA (State Tested Nursing Assistant).  Soon, all his hard work will pay off and the Byrd family will have a safe, decent, affordable home of their own!  “Since I got custody of my children I have strived for stable housing,” Brent explained. “This is the completion of that goal!”