Homeowner, daughter prepare for 40th Habitat home
Butlers recount years seeking permanent Chico home
CHICO >> With Ruby and Yaya Butler preparing to move in, a community of families who found a home on Chico’s Mulberry Street is about to be completed.
When the Butler house is finished, theirs will be the most recent of 40 homes to be built in Butte County, including 37 in Chico, by Habitat for Humanity so far, according to Executive Director Nicole Bateman.
Standing in the finished kitchen of what will soon be all hers and her daughter’s, Ruby described nearly 12 years of waiting for a home that would be secure.
Since moving to Chico in August 2009 with her then-18-month daughter, they will have since moved 11 times when they settle in their new home.
It was “literally an escape,” Butler said, when she moved from San Bernardino to live with her stepmother in Chico, as she did not want to raise her child in Southern California. To get off social assistance, Butler said she worked to get an apartment of their own.
Then Butler said her ex-spouse caused issues that led to them moving to other properties, and they were later evicted in a change of ownership deal at another complex which was turned
into student housing.
An in-home caregiver, Butler said she’s been working for the same client for six years who once invited them to live in her home. But after the client moved to a smaller property, Butler subsequently gave up Section Eight affordable housing assistance to continue to be a live-in care provider, living in the client’s home for over five years.
Now moving from the middle of what she called “college town” in Chico by First Avenue, having a home of their own at last is like “winning the lottery” Butler said.
“As a single parent, it’s already like a gut punching-type thing when you gotta have multiple jobs just to make sure that you’re comfortable,” she said.
“But to have a home and security, that can’t nobody take away from us, and it stands for us … is like the biggest checked box off of parenting that you can have.” She said her daughter had once made her promise that the next time they moved, it would not be into an apartment.
The help of Habitat for Humanity, after waiting over 18 months for their own home, helps remove many stresses, and she can now focus on figuring out what to do for the future, Butler said.
“My baby can be guaranteed to go to college. Finances do not have to be a stressor,” she said.
She encouraged people who are trying to afford owning a home to research the program and its requirements to see about committing to a home, such as completing “sweat equity” hours of work to build the home along with a down payment and mortgage.
“I would tell anyone … don’t look at your shortcomings as something that makes you feel like
you don’t deserve, or you shouldn’t put your foot in the water,” she said. “Even if I didn’t get one of these (homes), I would have loved to be a part of the process, and I plan on it.”
What’s the “save the icing for last” moment, in her words? Having total control over the home décor process, Ruby said, as she walked about the house describing her plan to make a dream home for her daughter and their dog, a Labrador and German shepherd mix. She and Yaya pointed out where shelves, mirrors, area rugs and plants will go.
“It’s going to be luminous … lots of color, lots of light,” she said.
Bidwell Presbyterian Church also donated $30,000 the Butlers could use to buy furniture.
“It’s been a blessing from beginning to end,” she said.
Yaya, who turns 13 in April, goes to Chico Junior High School and has already befriended a neighbor her age who lives in the recently completed home next door. She’s looking forward to “actually having a room, my own space. Basically, having a good time with my mom and a better relationship.”
The Butlers will likely move in to their new home between May and June. They join a community which includes several Camp Fire survivors and three single-mother households.
Next, Bateman said Habitat for Humanity will begin building homes in Paradise, moving ground in April and raising walls in May. Three families of Camp Fire survivors are already chosen, two of whom are single moms with young boys.
Butte County fire survivors or others in need of help with housing can apply to see if they qualify at https://www.habitat. org/us-ca/chico/hfh-buttecounty.