November Dance
November 20, 2006
Bayou Walk gets mixed reviews
November 22, 2006
Bayou Area Habitat for Humanity home finds its way to owner
By SOPHIA RUFFIN
The residents of Thibodaux’s Sanders Street are getting a new neighbor n and a new house.
The Bayou Area Habitat for Humanity, partnering with the Louisiana Technical College, is giving another Tri-parish family a home. Thursday morning, workers loaded a fully-constructed house from the college campus on Tiger Drive in Thibodaux to its new location at 268 Sanders St.
“This is the fourth house we have placed on Sanders Street,” said Lynette Grazier, BAHFH resource development and public relations director. “Two of them are occupied and the other two are waiting on the perspective owners’ paperwork.”
Olivia Queen, one of the BAHFH homeowners on Sanders Street, said she used to live in a shot-gun home on General Nicholls Street in Thibodaux before she applied for her Habitat for Humanity home in 2003.
“It is good to have my own home; now we all have our space to move around the house freely,” she said.
Once approved for the home, Queen said the real work begins for Habitat homeowners. Potential homeowners have to build up sweat equity hours, which means they have to help with the construction of other Habitat for Humanity homes, work in the Habitat for Humanity office or volunteer for the organization in other ways.
“Homeowners doing sweat equity hours makes them appreciate their home more,” said Humanity Advocate Pat Reed. “They learn all types of things that are key to owning your own home.”
Grazier said the Lorio Foundation of Thibodaux sponsored the cost of the house and property for the Sanders Street home Habitat moved Thursday. She said the homes are valued at $80,000 to $85,000 and homeowners pay their own mortgages.
This is the third Habitat for Humanity home Louisiana Technical College construction instructor Todd Roussel and his vocational technology students have built for the group in the Lafourche Parish.
The public relations director said the partnership with BAHFH and Louisiana Tech moves her mission one step closer to eliminating poverty housing in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes. She said this gives the students an opportunity to learn life skills while performing a great service for the community.
“The overwhelming need for housing in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes has provided us with the opportunity to change lives in our neighborhoods,” Grazier said. “Habitat for Humanity is one of the few n if not the only n affordable homeownership program that serves families earning less than 50 percent of the median family income.”
The cost burden and overcrowding are among the most serious problems experienced by very low-income area residents, she said. Working with volunteers, families, corporations, congregations and donors, Habitat for Humanity is able to tackle this important housing issue through the Tri-parish area, Grazier explained.
“We are dedicated to making home-owning possible for low-income, working families. Since 1996, we have built houses in neighborhoods across the Tri-parish area,” she said. “Shelter is a basic human need, and Habitat strives to achieve its goal of eliminating poverty housing and making decent, affordable homes a reality for all families.”
Sophia Ruffin can be reached at (985) 876-3008 or sophia@tri-parishtimes.com
Staff photo by Sophia Ruffin A Bayou Area Habitat for Humanity home is loaded aboard a truck at the Louisiana Technical College in Thibodaux where it was built. The house made the trip to its final destination on Sanders Street.
