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Habitat house means daughter will 'finally get her own room' By
Melissa Woods
This is an important day. One by one the board members of the Habitat for Humanity enter the room talking excitedly to one another as they surround the round varnished oak table, leaving only one seat vacant. Behind them faced an audience of empty chairs. Being a Christian organization, they open the meeting with a prayer. Together, they prayed that the desolate chairs behind them would one day be filled and their 12-member board would expand to something more. The prayer is ended and the head of the board, William Lye, reads the addendum for the meeting and then turns the time over to Jim Royle of the Family Selection Committee. There is silence. The members listen intensely to every word. His eyes squint together as he thinks of the right words to say. "Choosing a family from all the applicants is never easy," Royle says, "Many don't see the diligence and scrutiny the committee goes through in choosing the candidates." The anticipation is heightened as a few of the members begin to shift anxiously in their chairs. "But after seriously looking at all the factors," Royle continues, "It is unanimously decided that Bobbie Myers will." His words are immediately cut short by an outburst from one of the members. Bobbie Myers, the secretary, drops her pen and pulls her hands to her cheeks. "Thank You!" she says as she fights to continue to write and carry on her duties as secretary, but her tears blur her vision. "My daughter will be so excited to finally get her own room." She says as she looks up towards the ceiling to keep the tears from rolling out of her eyes. "It's so hard for a single mom, this is truly a blessing." Her voice breaks and her nose begins to tingle as she fights to hold back her tears. No longer holding it in, she covers her face with her hands. Immediately a tissue is flung across the table. "You can now order address labels," another member blurts out to Myers. Myers has been renting out a two bedroom apartment in Logan for the past two years. She has two boys and one girl who all share one bedroom. The Habitat will now set forth actions to build a home for Myers and her family. "Bobbie is a remarkable person." Lye says, "but this house is not a gift, it's an opportunity to help her." Habitat houses are not just given to anyone. The houses are built with volunteer labor, and mortgage payments are affordable because they have no interest tacked on to the cost. Every cent that is payed from a monthly mortgage payment is put into the pot for the building of another home. Myers' 11-year old daughter has a hard time sharing a room with her adolescent brothers and crawls into bed next to her mother most of the time. Myers says that after her separation with her husband her daughter has been more afraid. "I think she is worried that I'm not going to be there when she wakes up," She says. Myers got married when she was 18 years old and moved to Pennsylvania with her husband to begin their new life. Twenty three years later Myers stood face to face with the most crucial decision she has ever had to make. Leave him. For the last 10 years of her marriage, Myers says she was wavering back and forth with the notion of whether or not to leave. "We weren't talking and when we did talk, it was a fight." Myers has seven children. Four of them are out of the house and now have families of their own. Myers* older children have always encouraged her to leave. However, she says she could never muster enough strength to go through with it. "I haven't been a strong person most of my life," she says. "I was very passive and more of a peacemaker who didn't like conflict." Myers felt she couldn*t leave because she had no idea where she would go, and she did not have the money or the resources to make such a critical move. Myers says that her three younger children were not happy and wanted to leave "They were tired of what was going on and they were tired of the fighting and their dad being mean." She says. Myers finally made the decision to leave when her nine-year old daughter came home from school handing her a folded up piece of construction paper the size of a car window. On the front of the card was a carefully drawn picture of a girl with blonde braids poking out of the side of her head. But this wasn't a picture of sunshine, rainbows and smiles like most girls her age had drawn. This hand drawn sketch was of a girl with baby blue tears rolling down each cheek. And a small line was drawn in the shape of a frown for lips. Circled around the portrait were bubbles of all different colors. Inside the bubbles were crayola drawn frowning faces with colorful tears falling from the eyes. At the top was a handwritten note in big letters that read: "Mommy, I whish daddy wood bee nice to you." One week after receiving this card, Myers packed her clothes, her childrens toys and beds in a Ryder truck and left. Her oldest son who lived in Roy, Utah came to visit prior to her leaving and after observing the situation he told her, " I will give you everything I have." And he did. "He took his rent, bill money, everything he had in his checking account and bought a Ryder truck so I could leave," Myers says. Three days later she was in Utah searching for a job and beginning her new life. Myers moved to Logan where her sister resides and rented out the house she is currently living in. Her front room is covered in bright green shag carpet. The carpet is complemented by the 1970*s, bright orange couch purchased at the Deseret Industries. Myers says she left everything in Pennsylvania except the children*s beds so she has purchased everything else from places such as the D.I. "My home is my thrift store." She says as she laughs outloud. A broken glassed framed picture of her son hangs from the corner of the wall and is surrounded by pictures of her family through their childhood. Meyers speaks excitedly of her entertainment stand given to her by her son "This is my one nice piece of furniture in the house." Myers laughs about her *thrift store* house and says she does have a couch already picked out for her new home. "The kids went with me and we picked it out, so we know how much it is and how much we have to save." Myers says her life is extremely busy now. "I'm either at work, at school or taking the kids to a ballgame." She is working 50 hour weeks at Presco in order to pay off her debt. Myers said that in order to be approved for a Habitat home she had to do something about her debt ratio. When she gets her paycheck, it all goes towards paying off bills and supporting her family. "There have been times where I didn't even have money for groceries." In addition to this she is taking 12 credits at Utah State and trying to get into the nursing program so she can bring in substantial income. Myers is beginning to pick out floor plans for the home she will have one day. Myers turned her application to the Habitat in in June. Out of four families, she was picked. To be selected for a Habitat home, it is required that recipients are in need, willing to become a partner with Habitat and have the ability to repay the no-interest mortgage. However glamourous it sounds. These homes do come with a price. "You have to work," Myers says. "It's not a free house." Myers must put in 250 hours of labor on the actual construction of her home. Those families who are married have to put in 500 hours of labor. In addition to this, Myers must prove that she is working and will be able to pay the bills . Habitat has had to reject applicants because of poor credit or inability to pay bills. As Lye says, "Rejecting a person is a blessing in their life if they can't afford it." Myers has been working closely with a financial planner, Richard Thomas, who is a volunteer for Habitat. Because of Myers bad credit and income level, she is not able to qualify for a mortgage without paying an extreme amount in interest. Through the help of Thomas she has been able to consolidate much of her debt and bring many interest payments down. She has even payed off two of her credit card payments. Meyers had been paying $70 a month towards a credit card. Of that payment, $57 went towards interest. Thomas pointed out that at this rate it would take 38 years to pay off that payment, even if Myers didn't charge anything else. Through Thomas' help and deciding how much to pay each month, Myers will have all her bills payed off in less than six years. Habitat is a national and international organization. Cache valley has its own chapter of this organization right here in logan. Habitat has been building homes for 25 years and through the course of these years has built more than 100,000 houses. Habitat has housed over 500,000 people in many different communities. Myers* home will be the fifth one built here in Cache Valley. In the United States alone, 5.3 million households in the United States live in substandard housing, such as Bobbie Myers. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter are longtime Habitat supporters and volunteers. The Habitat doesn't just build homes. As Lye says, "We build families." The national goal of the organization is to "help homeowners gain self-reliance, self-esteem and new skills; they also gain a very real sense of responsibility for new homes and neighborhoods." Myers says that after a home is built, they don't just walk away. "They keep working with them on how to be a good neighbor, how to keep up with the home, how to handle finances." Myers says, "They don't just walk away and leave them stranded and on their own, they make sure they are better off emotionally as well as physically." Logan's Habitat is currently trying to find another piece of ground for these families. Eight families still need a home. "We have families that need adequate housing," Myers says. "I'm not the only one." Myers says leaving her husband was the hardest thing she has ever done. However, two years later she is now working hard to get her life back. "I'm so excited, I really am!" Myers says smiling. "This has been such an exciting week cause we're getting the house, and I paid off a couple bills and my daughter is three weeks pregnant" "it's been a whole week of good things." If you wish to contribute your talents, time and/or donations please contact William Lye at (435) 752-8419 or (435) 752-9669. Or write to Habitat for Humanity; 60 Raymond Court., Logan, Utah 84321
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