St. Pete, Habitat Celebrate New Home For Mom, Daughter

For Habitat for Humanity and the city of St. Petersburg, it is the 100th house they have built together for a deserving family.

More importantly, they agreed, it is the first house for Cynthia Ivey and her 15-year-old daughter, Chauncey.

"I'm ready to start a new life," Ivey said this morning, a paint brush in hand as she stood in what soon will be her living room.

By the end of the month, the two will leave their apartment and move into their new three-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 3737 19th Ave. S - with their own washer and dryer and no neighbors living above them.

The finishing touches are being applied and volunteers were on hand by 8 a.m. to do interior painting, including Mayor Rick Baker.

"You'll notice there's no ladder required in this job," the 6-foot-7 mayor said as he reached to do trim work at the top of a wall.

Baker and other city employees pitched-in and joined Habitat officials in commemorating the 100th house they have built since 2002. That's when the city decided to donate vacant lots it had accrued to Habitat, which in turn, has filled them with new homes for families in need of assistance.

"It provides urban redevelopment, and somebody gets a home," Baker said of the program. "You don't want vacant lots and rundown buildings" in neighborhoods.

Baker said the city had about 120 to130 vacant lots in the midtown area. Between Habitat and other uses, they're gone.

"That's a good sign, right?" Baker said.

The city bought the lot for Ivey's home in south St. Petersburg for $20,000 in federal grant money. It was a vacant lot in a neighborhood that will benefit from a new house, Baker said.

Barton Cobb, development director for Habitat in Pinellas, said the group built 11 homes in the county this past year, and plans to build 24 between now and June 2009. Overall, it has build 153 home in the county - 100 of them in St. Petersburg.

Habitat, funded largely by donations, uses volunteer labor and sells homes for the cost of materials - about $100,000 in Ivey's case. Habitat provides no-interest mortgages on the properties, and uses the payment to help fund other home projects, Cobb said.

Homeowners are required to contribute some of that volunteer labor, and to attend classes to prepare them for homeownership. Cobb said that nationally less than 4 percent of Habitat homeowners end up in foreclosure.

Ivey, in her 40s, was happy to put in her 250 hours of "sweat equity" - about half of which was done by her friends and coworkers. Her daughter is too young to help, "but there are going to be some days of yard cutting,'' she said, grinning.

Ivey, a domestic violence victim advocate with Community Action Spouse Abuse, found out about Habitat while trying to help some her own clients find housing. She learned she qualified for the Habitat program, went to some informational meetings and applied.

She was accepted a year ago and work began in October.

Now, as the final touches are being added, she is packing boxes at her apartment and Chauncey is thinking about decorating her room.

"It's exciting," she said, looking around the home as volunteers painted and rushed about.

She talked about all of the new amenities and the prospect of her and Chauncey having a home of their own, and eventually, emotions overcame her.

"It's wonderful," she said, pausing as tears ran from her eyes. "I wasn't going to cry."