Habitat for Humanity celebrated Mother’s Day ahead of time this year with the blessing of a local mother’s future home in Lehigh Acres and honoring her homeownership journey as part of the organization's 15th annual Women Build program in Lee and Hendry counties.
The prayer, by Diane Hagler, children's director at Turning Point Church in Bonita Springs, placed a special comforting blanket on the nearly completed home:
"Lord in prayer right now, Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone on this property right now. You've brought us all together today to celebrate your blessings, I lift up to you, Lissy. She has been longing for a home of her own, a place where her family can gather. You've blessed her with two children who are young men now to share that home with her. I also want to lift up the people that help make this happen, the donors, the volunteers. Thank you for their generosity of time and resources, and Lissy herself through lots of hard work, blood, sweat and tears, may she be an inspiration to others to show that you can do this. You can have a home of your own. So Father, please bless this home and Lissy family, I pray for your protection over them in your precious name. Amen."
The "Lissy" in the prayer is prospective homeowner and mother of two Lissy Castro Rodriguez, and the home is the one she's helped put together. Hagler's blessing made Friday morning at the dwelling means the world:
"I finally will have my own place and a private space for me and my kids ... they're excited too. They're happy that we will have our own place, not our rental, because we pay for several rentals too," she said. "They did have their own room at certain point, but this will be because this will be our home. So they do have that exciting feeling, they're happy, and they just want to move as soon as possible."
What made this possible is Habitat’s Women Build program, a 15-year-old annual initiative to engage women in the effort to provide safe and decent homes for families in need of affordable housing.
Cece Schepp, director of communications and marketing for Habitat, detailed the Women Build program:
"This year, we're actually building 62 affordable homes across Lee and Hendry counties, and 87% of the families that are purchasing those homes with us are actually female-led households," Schepp said. "So Women Build is really an opportunity for us to raise awareness, not just for the need of affordable homeownership and housing, but also for female led-households."
Schepp urged others like Castro Rodriguez who may be looking for a home to get in touch with Habitat for Humanity locally to see if they might qualify.
"Women Build is so important, and supporting female-headed households is so important, we serve all families of all different backgrounds, makeups, everything, so we would encourage anyone to come to us, seek out our program, see if that they could potentially qualify and apply," she said.
Schepp said some may be surprised that they qualify.
"A lot of people could qualify and are considered income qualified that make quite a bit of money, but 30 to 80% of the area median income is the families that we serve, and that's a surprisingly high income depending on your family size," she said. "It's an incredible program, and we just really encourage people to to participate."
The program isn’t free. Those approved put in what’s called “sweat equity,” meaning they put actual labor into working on building the home and then buy the finished product.
"(Castro Rodriguez) is working extremely hard, and then will be also maintaining this home for years to come, and hopefully have this to pass along to her children in the future as well," Schepp said.
Videographer Amanda Inscore Whittamore contributed to this report. WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.
