When Natosha Thomas visited the site of her first new home on Pontiac Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Baltimore City at about 1 a.m. Monday, it was nothing more than a concrete foundation with a plywood floor.
“When I went out there again this morning at 9:30, I was just speechless,” she said. “There were walls up and a roof.” Grayson Homes has donated the time, materials and labor to build Thomas? home.
Thomas, a certified nursing assistant, and her three children are one of a handful of local families who will be handed the keys to new homes this weekend at the end of Habitat for Humanity?s national weeklong blitz build, during which 1,000 professional builders will put up more than 400 houses for 130 Habitat chapters across the country.
Arundel Habitat for Humanity is coordinating the building of two houses, one in Anne Arundel County, the other in Baltimore City.
Jacqueline Esdelle, a school bus driver and mother of six, will move into her new home on Elizabeth Avenue in Pumphrey. Crews got an early start on her house Monday.
Dale Beahm, co-owner of Sturbridge Homes, the Gambrills-based homebuilder that donated time, labor and materials to build Esdelle?s five-bedroom, two-bathroom home, said his crews were about two hours ahead of schedule by mid-afternoon Monday.
“It?s exciting; it feels good to help a mother get ahead in life,” he said. “It?s good to give back.” By 1 p.m., workers were hoisting shingles by hand up to the roof. The homes are scheduled to be completed and delivered to the new homeowners by Saturday.
To qualify for a Habitat for Humanity house, families must live in substandard housing, meet income requirements and be willing to earn sweat equity hours toward their own homes by helping on other home projects.
For Thomas, who applied twice for a Habitat house, the prospect of a new home means more than just the promise of a roof over her head.
“This means the beginning of a brand-new life,” she said. “I don?t intend for this house to ever leave my family. I want it to stay in my family and I want it to be passed on and for the story to be told about how it came about.”
