“I was born in St. Louis, Missouri. I moved here in 1995. At that point, I found myself – for lack of a better word – homeless.”

Buffy was in a tough spot. Facing homelessness with several young children was daunting, to say the least. There was constant anxiety about where her babies would lay their heads that night, or the next.

But Buffy is strong.

At 9:00 a.m. on a weekday in May, Kera saw the house pop up in her online search. She was immediately intrigued, and knew she had to act fast. By 9:05, she was talking to her realtor and Angelo, her boyfriend, to see if they could get a tour. At 11:00 a.m., they showed up at the home. They loved it. Soon, they would put in an offer.

Simone was nine. Ever since her mom, Betty, had gotten a divorce, they had been moving frequently in search of an affordable place to stay. Moving meant Simone and her older sister had to transfer to different schools. And it meant they often lived in cramped apartments with family.

“My sister and I shared a room, we shared a bed, we shared practically everything,” Simone says.

It didn’t feel stable.

The saying goes that a lot of things in life happen by chance. Just pure luck. And if you applied that to Isabel and her family owning a Habitat for Humanity home—you’d be right. Well, sort of…

A few months ago, we highlighted the referral partnership between Model Cities and Twin Cities Habitat. Today, we’re excited to share an update from one of the first families who chose to prepare for Habitat homeownership by partnering with Model Cities (one of several Twin Cities Habitat Referral Partners).

“There’s a stark contrast from before we had a Habitat home and had roots planted and after,” Lynnisha says, remembering life before her mom, Betty, bought a home with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity in 1991.

Kathy and David will never forget their first night in their Habitat home. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and they had closed on the home earlier that day. Leaving their two young boys with David’s parents, they grabbed their sleeping bags and some food for dinner and went to their new home—just the two of them.

“It was so surreal,” says Kathy. “Everything we did – turning on a light, eating dinner on the floor, doing dishes in the sink – reminded me that this was actually my home.”

Although Habitat for Humanity is probably best known for our homebuilding and homeownership programs and services, we also offer Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention support for residents of Minneapolis, and health and safety repair services for existing low-income homeowners in the Twin Cities metro area through our A Brush with Kindness (ABWK) program.