Rachel Hernandez and her son, Jaime Valenzuela, are set to become the inhabitants of Verde Valley Habitat for Humanity’s 13th home build.
“They’re helping you to get a stable home,” Henrnadez said, outlining the painstaking and timely process to acquire a mortgage and two-bedroom home construction approval through Habitat for Humanity. “I feel very privileged and blessed ….. It’s going to change our lives.”
Construction is expected to begin in Cottonwood in the next month.
For the fourth-generation Verde Valley resident, however, just anticipating it is the culmination of a lot of hard work — including but not limited to fundraising for Habitat for Humanity, 300 to 400 sweat-equity hours and a more painstaking-than-usual mortgage application that required extensive background checks.
Once completed, the home will be ADA-compliant to accommodate the needs of 19-year-old Valenzuela, partially disabled through an accident at birth. Up until now, any accommodation to his disability has been difficult. For the last few years, he has been living in a relative’s living room.
“It’ll be nice to have my own room,” Valenzuela said, smiling.
Prior to construction, Valenzuela made another request that had nothing to do with physical limitations and everything to do with food.
“He loves to bake,” Hernandez explained. “We asked them not to put a dishwasher in, so that he had more cabinet space.”
“Our goal is to build a modest home, but a well constructed home,” VVHFH Executive Director Tania Simms said, adding that Habitat For Humanity’s main goal is to make homes affordable for those people unable to acquire mortgages through traditional lenders.
Most home-build applicant families in Arizona make between $20,000 and $30,000 per year, a maximum 30 percent of which will go to mortgage payments. In the process of providing an affordable roof over applicants’ heads, the arrangement allows homeowners to build equity and long-term financial stability.
“Home ownership is still considered one of the major goals in the U.S.,” Simms said. “And the goal is not for our homeowners to stay on the same level …. Our expectation is we want them to increase their opportunities and financial situations.”
Simms added that Habitat for Humanity is not handing out homes. Instead, it is requiring a firm commitment to building a sustainable future among homeowners that might otherwise go unnoticed and uncared for.
