 York Habitat for Humanity and Community Progress Council are working together to make the journey to homeownership easier. Now, anyone applying to Habitat’s program can first complete CPC’s “Pathway to Homeownership” workshops, which cover everything from saving money to understanding the homebuying process, helping families feel confident and prepared for the next step. Click here to read more.
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 Nsenga Boka brought her daughter to the United States from Africa over a decade ago. Through hard work and the help of York Habitat for Humanity, she soon will move into a new home of her own. Nsenga Boka couldn’t see a future for herself and her 6-year-old daughter, Elisee Okenge, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She had completed high school but wasn’t afforded the opportunity to go to college.
Then her father, who was living in the United States, brought her and Elisee to York, Pennsylvania. Now, over a decade later and with the assistance of York Habitat for Humanity, Nsenga is preparing to help build and then move into a home of her own. Elisee, a Nursing major at York College of Pennsylvania, is excelling in arenas her mother felt unable to enter.  Tay Lingo has made giving of her time at the York Habitat for Humanity ReStore a priority in her busy schedule. In her bustling life as a full-time student at York College of Pennsylvania, a cheerleader, and a campus employee, Tay Lingo manages to carve out time for volunteering at York Habitat for Humanity.
Tay, a Business Administration major with a minor in Advertising and Digital Marketing who expects to graduate in spring 2024, learned about York’s own Habitat for Humanity during a college leadership course. Assigned to volunteer for 16 hours, Tay chose to work at the York Habitat ReStore. She was familiar with Habitat ReStores from the one located in her hometown of Vineland, New Jersey, where she and her mother often purchased and upcycled pieces of furniture and household items. “It started as a bonding activity and then it just kept going,” Tay says of working on furniture projects with her mom.  York Habitat for Humanity presented nine awards to this year’s nominated Habitat Heroes. These are individuals and organizations who have not only gone above and beyond supporting York Habitat for Humanity in some capacity over the years, but they also support multiple organizations throughout York County.
 After being evicted from her home following a cancer diagnosis, Jennifer Montalvo needed a more secure living situation for her and her children. She turned to York Habitat for Humanity. Jennifer Montalvo was raising two foster care children and two of her own when she received the diagnosis. She had stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
This wasn’t Jennifer’s first fight against cancer. Her oldest son recently had finished treatment for leukemia. The family barely had recovered from his weekly trips to Philadelphia for care. Through nine months of intensive chemotherapy, Jennifer lost not only her hair but her job. She was recovering when a late rental payment landed the sheriff on the doorstep of her four-bedroom house. “He’s like, ‘Hey, you gotta go,’” Jennifer says, “and I’m like, ‘where?’”  Lori Wise began helping at Habitat for Humanity home sites while in her 20s. Now she helps applicants delve into budgeting and finances as they embark on home ownership. Lori Wise walked through a small York City apartment with one of her York Health Corporation’s social services clients. It was the 1990s, and city apartments were hard to come by.
A bare electric wire dangled above where a dining room table was supposed to be, a single bulb attached to it. An icy breeze cut through the room, streaming in from the edges of the drafty ancient windows. The refrigerator and stove were so old that Lori wasn’t sure they worked. A postage stamp-sized countertop between them offered little space to create a meal for a family. At $1,200 a month, the rent for the two-bedroom apartment was well above what Lori was paying for her mortgage, and the rent didn’t even include utilities. “The things I saw in York were horrific,” Lori says. “Habitat is a way, to take what I have seen, and how bad it is, and to know that there is something that can be done.”  David Hummer didn’t think he’d ever have his own home until he learned about Habitat’s Veteran Home-ownership Program. Happy-go-lucky Chihuahua mix Balthazar is the first face visitors see at David Hummer’s York Habitat for Humanity home. Tail wagging, he grabs his taco squeaky toy and begs to play.
“It means the world to me,” David says of owning a home. “I get to have this little guy here.” In 2018, David felt that he was out of options. As a disabled veteran, he couldn’t discern any path to home ownership. Then, he happened to see a feature on WPMT-FOX43 about the York Habitat for Humanity Veteran Home-ownership Program. The next day he began filling out his application.  Raising four children alone and with a young son who recently underwent a lifesaving kidney transplant, Amanda Hilsher has faced her share of trials. She had hoped to settle in to her York Habitat for Humanity home by Christmastime, but delayed state funding put that plan on hold.
For Amanda Hilsher, as with many single parents, the challenges of making ends meet and providing a safe and comfortable space for her four children have become increasingly difficult. Rising rents eat up an ever-increasing portion of her income. “It’s very expensive to live,” she says, “and we currently rent, so every year our rent goes up. It’s to the point now where it’s like I can’t afford to live there anymore.” Amanda learned about York Habitat for Humanity’s home-ownership program through a friend who successfully had gone through the process in another county. She decided to give it a try, hoping to secure a stable and affordable home for her family. 
Since the nonprofit housing organization launched locally in 1985, volunteers Jane and Nelson Dodson have contributed time, energy, and finances to help families become homeowners.
As a teacher at York Country Day School, Jane Dodson oversaw volunteer opportunities for her students. A longtime proponent of York Habitat for Humanity, she arranged to have the students help at a Red Lion home construction site. Covered in dust, the students learned about hard work and sweat equity.
Years later, Jane and her husband, Nelson, also a now-retired teacher who spent years teaching at William Penn, and a diehard York Habitat volunteer, walked onto a worksite in York. There stood one of Jane’s former students, now married and working alongside his wife to fix up their own York Habitat home. “We got to work with him on his house, knowing we had planted the seed all those years ago,” Jane says. That wasn’t the end of the story, though. Much later, when the former student had achieved financial success, he donated the house back to York Habitat for Humanity. “I get goosebumps when I tell that story,” Jane says.  With no place to live at age 19, Judy Aguero turned to the organization and set out on a path that would transform her family’s future. Judy Aguero was just 19 and pregnant with her first daughter, living in a women’s shelter in York. Not sure where to turn, she picked up a pamphlet that listed local resources and learned about York Habitat for Humanity. She decided to apply for the organization’s home-ownership program.
Judy’s application was denied. York Habitat shared with her ways she could be in a better position to enter the program. Not one to give up easily, she applied the next year. That application also was denied. As her circumstances shifted, she applied year after year, facing the disappointment of denial each time. But she never gave up and neither did York Habitat. Together, they helped create a path for her to pursue her dream and make homeownership a reality. |