Penney Porter, the owner of Habitat for Humanity of Sangamon County's 99th build known as the "Pope Francis house," was able to move into her new home just in time for Christmas and New Year's.
On Sunday, Dec. 20 local Habitat leaders and Porter's family and friends — about 65 in all — gathered in the cafeteria of Harvard Park Baptist Church to present Porter with the keys to her new home and a few other gifts. Porter's house is directly across the street from the church, where many of the Habitat volunteers took breaks during the build. Father David Hoefler, vicar general for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, was on hand to lead the assembly in prayer.
Porter's Habitat house was built thanks to an anonymous person donating $60,000, which was 60 percent of the total $100,000 home-building cost, said Colleen Stone, executive director of the Sangamon County Habitat. The donor recognized all that Pope Francis is doing to unify the Catholic Church and challenged Habitat to find volunteers to work on the build in honor of the Holy Father, she said. Both Catholics and non-Catholics volunteered.
Habitat began working with the anonymous donor in December 2014. In the spring of 2015, HSHS St. John's Hospital pledged just over $30,000 toward the project. The remaining $9,700 came from the Diocesan Campaign for Justice and Hope, Catholic business owners and organizations, parishes and schools in and around Sangamon County, and from individuals at the diocesan Curia. For example, in October the Knights of Columbus Council 5754, assisted by youth from St. Peter Parish in Petersburg and Holy Family Parish in Athens, held a chicken dinner fundraiser for the build and donated $1,400.
Parishioners from St. Agnes Parish, Springfield; Christ the King Parish, Springfield; and St. Joseph the Worker Parish, Chatham, participated in the build, which took place mostly during the autumn months. Father Hoefler put his carpentry skills to work and volunteered to construct the stairs to the home.
In early December Lisa Reeves, director of PSR and parish ministries for St. Peter and Holy Family parishes, brought youth volunteers to the build site, where they did yard work and put down plastic in the crawlspace. "We had to clear the yard of old foundation bricks and stones that had accumulated from the three houses that had been on the property at one time," said Reeves. "We tried to smooth out the yard for planting grass seed in the spring. The volunteers worked really hard in a difficult environment as the yard was really muddy once the day warmed up."
Porter, who has raised her children and grandchildren in rental properties, wept with joy as she toured the house and gathered with close family members in the kitchen for their first "official" photo in her new home. Although she helped with the build, Porter hadn't seen the inside of the residence for several weeks and was overcome with emotion as she saw the finished product.
Porter put in more than twice as many "sweat equity hours" than were required for her build, said Stone, adding that many of those hours were spent volunteering in the renovation of the Habitat ReStore in Springfield earlier in 2015. Now she will make monthly mortgage payments through a zero-interest, no-profit loan. "The monthly payments (made by homeowners like Porter) will help build more houses in Sangamon County," Stone said.
Overwhelmed by all the help and support she received to become a Habitat homeowner, Porter said, "I just can't thank everybody enough … for all the help, support and love that you've given. This day has been so long coming that it's just kind of surreal that it's even really happening. It's just a blessing to be able to be able to participate in the Habitat program and to be a recipient of a new home."