Habitat Success Stories

Walter Family

I was born on January 20, 1970. My family lived in downtown New Orleans for many years. My siblings and I are very close in age so we all attended the same schools: Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, Andrew J. Bell Junior High School, and Joseph S. Clark High School. After I graduated from high school, I married my high school sweetheart and we had three beautiful children together. After a few years of marriage, my husband and I separated and I moved to Houston. While experiencing what real life was all about, paying bills, paying rent, I realized that I was paying someone else’s mortgage on their home. At that point, I decided that one day I will own my own home. I never gave up that dream. I moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado where living is a little different from down south. You really get to experience the four seasons, but after being there for so long, I started to miss my family.

So in 2005, I called my parents and said I want to come home. With no hesitation they said come home; their arms were always open for me when I needed them. In February 2005, I moved back to New Orleans and after six months of being home, Hurricane Katrina came. My family and I were stranded in the city; after a few days stranded with no way to safety, charter buses took us from the Superdome to Houston. After days of being separated from my family we were finally reunited.

Once we arrived in Texas my sister Martha got a hotel room, it was about 6 families living in the one hotel room. After getting into the room, Houston natives knocked on our door and gave everyone in my family a hot meal. The next day my sister Martha went to the grocery store and the lady in line behind her was a manager of an apartment complex; she gave us four apartments for three free months, and that gave my family the opportunity to get settled in our new city. But, there’s no place like home, so six months later we all decided to move back to New Orleans.

The city was still chaotic but luckily we had a place to live and workers were in demand more than ever. We saved our money to hopefully move in to newly renovated homes, but the available rental homes were so high we really couldn’t afford the rent. But as the months went by, we were able to find something affordable. Once we all got into our own place, my sister Kenya and I applied for Habitat and she was the only one to get accepted as a partner with them. God and Habitat blessed my sister with a home that she can finally call hers. The whole family participated in helping to build her home and several other homes in the Musician Village.

In 2012, both my mother and my sister passed away. After living with my parents all those years, I was always praying and asking God to show me the way. I went back to school for Dialysis Technician, with the Lord looking down on me noticing that I was trying to better myself. I received a phone call from my sister Kenya saying, “Habitat is accepting applications, it’s your chance to try again”; so I did and this time I was accepted. I was so excited when Ms. Emily called me and said I was accepted as a partner with Habitat; that was the happiest day of my life to know in just a few months I’ll be owning my own home.

I will like to thank God first and foremost, and I will also like to thank Habitat of Humanity for accepting me as a partner with their program. I will like to Thank Ms. Emily for her help and support through the whole process, I also will like to thank my family for their support in helping me do my hours.

Homeownership Program

We build good, safe, affordable homes that not only meet your needs but also give you a place you’re proud to call home.

Home Repair Program

This program helps low-income, elderly, and or disabled homeowners who may struggle to manage necessary repairs on their own.