‘One thing I’ve always wanted.’ Local Habitat for Humanity delivers first home since COVID-19
There was a moment, Angela Torres said, when it hit her.
It was her first time sitting outside her new home in Midland at night, and “it was just absolute quiet,” Torres recalled this week.
“I didn’t hear kids yelling or screaming. It was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re actually in here.’”
Days earlier, Torres, her mother and her teenage nephew had received the keys to a brand new home.
Previously, all of them had been sharing a residence with Torres’ niece, who has four children of her own.
It was cramped and crowded, and done out of necessity. Roughly two years earlier, skyrocketing rents had displaced Torres and her family from the 1-bedroom apartment they’d previously shared, so her niece took them all in.
Now, Torres was finally turning the page. Her new home — which she was able to purchase through Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity — came with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and plenty of fulfilled dreams.
It also made Torres the first person to move into a Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity home since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“I’ve worked hard for it,” Torres said of her new home. “This is the one thing I’ve always wanted. I always told myself … I’m going to own a house one day. To me, that was the goal.”
Torres officially got the keys to her new house on Friday, May 15. It was a day she had long been working toward. As part of the deal that made the affordable home purchase possible through Habitat for Humanity, she logged nearly 300 hours of volunteer work on the site.
The labor was the easy part, Torres said.
What was far more difficult, according to the 55-year-old originally from Hawaii, was the last-minute dose of uncertainty and panic that accompanied the coronavirus crisis and the ensuing economic fallout.
Over the last two months, Torress acknowledged there were many times when she feared it would all fall apart.
Torres is employed as a forklift driver at Goodwill but was temporarily laid off. She’s hoping to return to work next month.
When she filed for unemployment, Torres learned her identity had been stolen and someone was attempting to claim her benefits. The fraud significantly delayed Torres from claiming the money that is rightfully hers.
At the 11th hour, the lender that was supposed to finance her mortgage backed out. Thankfully, after a mad scramble, Banner Bank jumped in and came to the rescue.
Then, of course, there was what the state stay-home order might mean for the construction of her home, which was nearing completion when the state shutdown.
“Honestly, I was ready to just give up. There were days when I was overwhelmed,” Torres said. “If not for Habitat, I don’t know what would have happened. I got a lot of support from them. They would not let me give up.”
For Maureen Fife, CEO of Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity, the potential impact of the COVID-19 crisis also was cause for serious concern. The nonprofit had nine families just like Torres’ preparing to move into a new home when the pandemic hit, and what it would mean for them wasn’t entirely clear at first.
Because Habitat for Humanity produces low-income housing, the nonprofit’s work was deemed essential under Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-home order. But there were significant challenges to navigate when it came to the work typically done by hundreds of volunteers, which froze in mid-March.
The only people left who were allowed to work were Habitat for Humanity’s paid construction site managers, office staff and employees of the nonprofit’s stores, Fife recalled.
Together, they rose to the challenge, collectively making up for more than 1,500 volunteer hours lost in April and May, Fife said — all while adhering to social distancing protocols.
“It definitely turned our cart upside down, so to speak,” Fife said of the coronavirus crisis. “ I could not be more proud of the way the Habitat team has pulled together.”
Fife is hopeful there will be more stories like Torres’ soon.
Every year, Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity reviews about 40 applications from prospective homeowners and builds roughly a dozen houses, according to spokesperson Sherrana Kildun. All of them go to residents earning between 30 and 80 percent of area median income, with mortgages no greater than 30 percent of their income.
Torres, meanwhile, is still pinching herself. Along with being a guardian for her nephew, she cares for her mother, who is battling Parkinson’s disease.
The new home, she said, has been a blessing.
“No matter what it took, I wanted to make it happen for my mom. She’s never had a house. She’s going to be 88. Before she dies, I wanted her to know I did everything in my power to have a place to call home, and she doesn’t have to worry,” Torres said.
“I’m happy I don’t need to worry anymore.”
