LEMON HILL, Calif. — Just before the holidays, nine families in Sacramento County were able to get the keys to their new homes Saturday.
It's all because of their hard work and a hand up from Habitat for Humanity their new project.
“This is better than making things better this is making things great,” said Patrick Kennedy, District 2 Supervisor. “Every time we cut a ribbon, every time we hand over those keys... We are not giving a hand out, we are giving a hand up."
Each family put in 500 hours of "sweat equity," building new homes for their future neighbors in the community.
“[It took] every Saturday for a year and one month for me to complete these hours,” said Monique Lujan.
Families like the Lujan’s will buy their homes with a mortgage payment of 30% of their monthly income for 30 years.
“It was basically like winning the lottery, we are first time homeowners in our family so we broke the cycle,” said Michael Timberman.
For the Timberman family, the Cornerstone neighborhood in Lemon Hill isn’t about just having a home — but a safe one. Their son was diagnosed with lead poisoning before turning one. Tiffany Timberman said doctors were concerned about his brain and development.
“We realized it was coming from the old paint chipping off our house. We didn’t know what we could do. We couldn’t afford to move, our landlord was an elderly gentleman and couldn’t really do anything so we just did as much clean up as we could," she said. "It took a year for us to get his lead levels down and about that time we got accepted by habitat."
A total of nine families, 24 kids, starting their new life before the new year.
“It’s definitely lifechanging to be able to have a forever home for my kids,” said Jessica St. Andre.
The Cornerstone neighborhood is a first of its kind "collaborative effort neighborhood."
Another nine homes are ready to fill and officials say 108 affordable units will eventually be available as well.
