HOME SWEET HOME
Habitat for Humanity welcomes new homeowner to Woonsocket
WOONSOCKET – It was about a week ago when Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt drove through the quiet, treelined neighborhood off of Mendon Road where the city’s newest homeowner would soon be welcomed to Woonsocket.
As the mayor reached the corner of Phillips and Talcott streets, where there once sat a dilapidated, rundown, ramshackle property that had been abandoned for many years, she saw a woman tending to her garden, out in front of a sparkling new home, which was built over the past year thanks to the efforts of Habitat for Humanity of West Bay and Northern Rhode Island.
“I thought ‘I wonder if this is the new homeowner,’” the mayor said. When she arrived at Saturday morning’s ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4 Phillips St., she had her answer. “I saw Tina when I got here and she said, ‘That was me, I was weeding.’ And I thought this is exactly what we’re looking for – someone who owns a home, that is caring for their property, and it’s just fantastic.”
Hosted by Habitat for Humanity of West Bay and Northern Rhode Island, Saturday’s dedication and ribbon-cutting welcomed the city’s newest homeowner to Phillips Street – Tina Konze.
A first-time homeowner, Konze was living in the basement of a rented house in Cranston which had mold and electrical issues, but she said the rent was affordable “so I was kind of stuck.”
“I didn’t think that I’d be able to ever afford a home. Somebody told me
about Habitat and I applied and here I am…” she said on Saturday morning. “I cried, it was very emotional. It’s indescribable, knowing that it’s yours and you can do what you want and you know things are going to get fixed without worrying about if the landlord will comply or fix tanything.”
Konze isn’t just a homeowner, she has pride in ownership and didn’t mind getting a little dirt under her fingernails in the process of getting the home built. The first time she saw the piece of land on Phillips Street, it was little more than a pile of rocks and dirt with a foundation that had just been poured. But she assisted the Habitat for Humanity volunteers in putting the floors in, putting in several hours herself as the home was built from the ground up.
“It was just overwhelming to see where we were when it started and what it is now,” she said. “It’s unbelievable.”
Amy Gates, the president
of Habitat for Humanity, explained that the organization received several applications for the process, but to qualify, applicants have to fit into 80 percent of the area median income, their debt-to-income can’t be more skewed toward debt, and they have to have a minimum of $25,000 in income.
The second part of the application process is a family visit.
“When we do that, we kind of inspect their current living conditions, making sure that they don’t have a BMW in the driveway…” Gates said with a laugh. “But we want to see their living conditions. Is there overcrowding? Is there neglect? And Tina and her family were living in the basement of an apartment and nobody should have to live in the basement of an apartment, so the stars and the moon aligned and she fit all of the criteria.”
Earl Marsh, Habitat for Humanity’s construction manager, explained that there were initially questions as to whether the original property on the land could be salvaged and rebuilt, saying he
believed the Habitat team has “enough talent with our volunteers that we could’ve resurrected it, but it still would’ve been very problematic.”
“For instance, the stairway going to the second floor had a chimney going into the side of it, the second floor, I could barely stand up in it,” he said. “We tore the thing down, it was all new construction.”
Marsh said the project started about a year ago with a group of 10 volunteers donating their time every Saturday.
“It does say a lot about the volunteers, we do have very talented people … they’re extremely dedicated people,” Marsh said.
Baldelli-Hunt said she’s always been a “big fan” of Habitat for Humanity, saying it’s “just such a wonderful contribution from so many people who give up themselves and contractors who give up themselves to make an event like today take place, to really give homeownership to someone who is truly appreciative of the opportunity to be able to be called a homeowner in a community and have pride of ownership.”
“My entire administration is extremely supportive of building Habitat for Humanity homes and then seeing individuals like Tina and her family here today, emotional, and this is a big day,” she said.
The mayor particularly recalled driving by the derelict property that once stood on the corner and saying to herself “Something has got to happen with this property.”
“Neighbors were not happy, the house was covered with mold, it was held up for many reasons with the legal system, but here we sit today after several years and we have just transformed a lot on a corner in an absolutely beautiful neighborhood,” she said.