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.

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.  
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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. ​

With the support of the nonprofit organization, Maggie Villafane not only helped rehabilitate homes for others but built the foundation for a better future for herself and her family.

Born and raised in York, Maggie Villafane always had rented. Repeatedly moving from apartment to apartment, the prospect of owning a home seemed unrealistic.

In 2012, with a new baby and hoping for a better future for her family, Maggie turned to York Habitat for Humanity.  

"I saw it as the perfect opportunity to have our first home,” she says. “I think if we would have gone the traditional route, I felt like we wouldn’t have been able to afford it." 

In 2009, Celia Serrano and her nearly adult children moved from Arizona to York to be with her, now, husband , hoping to find stability and a place to call home.

Having both previously lived in New York City, she and her husband longed to have a house of their own. After exploring options for buying a home, Celia saw that York Habitat for Humanity’s home-ownership program offered the best path forward. 

“Once I came here and got settled down and started working, I looked into the program and to see if we were eligible, and we were,” Celia says. 
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The application process began in 2013, and after months of navigating credit checks and paperwork with her York Habitat for Humanity coach, Celia and her family were approved to become owners of a Habitat home.  

With raised glasses of sparkling cider, Keith and Libby Shaub of York celebrated paying off their York Habitat for Humanity home in 2019. It was the completion of a journey that had started nearly two decades before.  

Living in a claustrophobic apartment after their marriage in 1999, Keith and Libby knew they needed more space.  

“We had a daybed with a trundle that was underneath the bed,” Keith says. “When we put it up, I couldn't get out of bed, it was so tight. The rooms were real small.” 
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They didn’t think they’d ever be able to buy a home until they learned about York Habitat for Humanity’s home ownership program.  

Tonya wanted to write a different story for her family than the one she grew up with. She was a single mom, living in York City with three daughters and a son in a two-bedroom apartment. Her children were struggling in school and she was afraid her son would drop out as she had.

“We had times where we came out of our house and literally ducked because there was shooting,” Tonya remembers.

Feeling that she had nowhere else to turn, Tonya reached out to York Habitat for Humanity. She had applied for a mortgage with another company but was approved for only $85,000 in spite of having a good credit score. Tonya knew she wouldn’t be able to find the home her family needed on that budget.

Tonya previously had been denied entry into the York Habitat for Humanity program, and with a felony in her background and her struggle to make ends meet and care for her family, Tonya worried that she would be rejected again.
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This time the story was different. Tonya was approved.