JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Nearly two dozen Jacksonville families celebrate becoming new homeowners, thanks to Habijax.
HabiJax came together with them and the community partners and volunteers who made it possible for a celebration Friday afternoon in the New Town area.
The homes are all across this community, and that'sno accident.
HabiJax has been working in this area for years they want to see some of this blight gone in addition to help families live out their dream of home ownership.
The group is dedicated 20 homes on Friday.
They're not contractors, or cleaners, they're volunteers.Barbara Smith came on her birthday to help with building these houses.
"It makes me feel so good because I used to be one of those parents looking for a home and I thought about HabiJax so I'm glad that they have a community that can do that for them," Smith said.
"So I want to give back to that."
That's why she's wiping windows doing whatever she can to put the finishing touches on this three bedroom two bathroom home.
Smith knows what a difference help from a group like HabiJax, the largest non-profit affordable housing provider in Duval County can be, for a family in need of a home.
"It's very hard. And if you have a program that comes that says they are going to help and get it cost efficient for you that's a good program to get into you don't have to worry about the extra stuff of getting a loan and things of that nature," she said.
But that doesn't mean the road to owning this home and the others HabiJax has built is an easy one.
That's why Angela Leatherbury, the chief administrative officer with HabiJax, says the dedication is also a celebration of the work homeowners have done.
"It's really just there's so much work that goes into becoming a homeowner with habiJax a lot of people think that we give away homes and that's really not what habitats about," Leatherbury said.
"We are a home ownership program."
The homeowners also spend anywhere from nine months to a year going through credit counseling and have to volunteer a total of 300 hours.
And as these volunteers spend hours in this home, they do so thinking of the moment it's new owners will walk through the door.
"I want them to feel excited because they will have years to come living in this home and just bring big excitement especially to the kids," she said.
"Because then they can go play and stuff like that."
Each house takes 12 to 15 weeks to build and some 800 volunteers to complete, all made possible by partnering with local companies.