[South Carolina] Habitat residents speak out

from Myrtle Beach Online

Dreams are coming true
By Jan A. Igoe

Tucked beside Forestbrook Road and U.S. 501 is a row of one-story homes on Mistletoe Court that Habitat for Humanity of Horry County calls Village of Dreams. For 15 new homeowners, the neighborhood has already made their biggest dream come true.

"I never thought I would own my own home," said Tomika Kenion, relaxing in her comfortable living room during a rare respite from work and ferrying two sons, Tahbleek Pridgen, 5, and Drew Robinson, 13, to sports practices. "You look at the prices and getting financing - plus the down payment."

For renters, Myrtle Beach is the state's most expensive metropolitan area.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition says workers need to make more than $13 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment with fair-market rent of $684.

Buyers in Horry or Georgetown counties will find scarcely one in 10 homes on the market with an asking price under $150,000, according to the Multiple Listing Service. Homes in the Village of Dreams cost $69,000 for a three bedroom and $73,000 for a four bedroom.

Besides sky-high real estate costs, some Habitat residents face additional obstacles to owning a home, such as physical disabilities, raising children alone, or trying to get an education while holding down a job or two and paying for child care.

"Families, generally, are struggling more now. In some of the lower-wage jobs, pay isn't increasing at the same rate as cost of living," said Gail Olive, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Horry County. "It's harder and harder to pay the mortgage."

Many residents of Village of Dreams would still be living with relatives, they say, if not for Habitat's help.

Kenion, who has been scheduling radiology appointments at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center for seven years, lived with her parents in North Myrtle Beach before moving into her home.

"It's a big change. They live one way, and I live another," Kenion said. "Me and the boys were in one room. Your whole life is altered."

Before Erica and John Keith and daughter Chekhanna, 2, moved to their home in December, they lived at Erica's mother's house where Amber, their 14-year-old, will stay until the school year ends.

"On and off, it was crowded," said Erica Keith, who studies early-childhood education at Horry-Georgetown Technical College. "Now, I can do what I want to do. I'm more independent. With my family, everybody got into my business.

"You don't have to worry about somebody else telling you when to come in and out, using phones and other stuff," said John Keith, who is legally blind and walks more than a mile to catch the first of two buses to his job at Springmaid Resort. When his wife, who can't walk, needs the Internet for school, she also travels by bus to Chapin Memorial Library.

The apartment they lived in before moving in with Erica's mother was no bargain either.

"I was paying close to $600 a month for a small two-bedroom, one bath on Dunbar Street," she said. "No matter how much I complained, they never came and fixed the plumbing. There was always something wrong."

The Keiths' monthly mortgage payment is $302 for their 1,005-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath home specially adapted for Erica's wheelchair.

Gail Dennison, 45, takes care of her three grandchildren in the home she shares with her son, Lee Dennison. Before moving to the village, she lived near the Canal Street Recreation Center in her aunt's house with its cast iron heaters and aging water pipes.

"It was overcrowded. I couldn't borrow money to fix it because it was my family's house," she said.

Now, Dennison's immaculate living room is filled with plush new furniture. Even when she gets unexpected visitors at 10 a.m. on a weekday, every bed is already made and the place settings adorning the dining table are magazine-cover perfect.

The Habitat program changes lives, which is the biggest job perk, said Olive, a Socastee resident who worked for nonprofits for 20 years before joining the local affiliate in 2000.

"This job combines a whole bunch of stuff my other jobs didn't," Olive said. "Habitat is a Christian organization. You can see the results. You actually see the houses - see the families move in and see how their lives have changed."

Olive estimates the cost to develop the subdivision, from the ground up, was somewhere between $1.3 and $1.4 million. Three-bedroom homes sell for $69,000. Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. donated the land; state and private grants helped pay for infrastructure. They're already "looking under every rock," she said, for funding to open Phase 2 with seven more homes.

In addition to 200 hours of sweat equity and monthly mortgage payments, Habitat requires every applicant to complete a one-year program that covers everything homeowners need to know - from budgeting to fixing a toilet.

They also take "Credit When Credit is Due," a four-session course taught by Theresa Ross of Consumer Credit Counseling, a nonprofit and HUD-certified agency with an office in Conway.

"In high school and college, they teach advanced math," Ross said. "Nobody's teaching about how to balance checkbooks, budget, manage credit cards, [avoid] predatory lenders and bankruptcy."

Residents raved about how much Ross' class taught them.

"It was helpful in all kinds of ways," John Keith said. "Don't worry about what someone else has. Get what you can afford. It showed us how to manage money."

The response has thrilled Ross.

"I'm hopeful I am changing generations through this course," she said. "They can pass the knowledge to their children."

Two defining moments for owners of Habitat homes are the blessing before construction begins and the dedication, when the front door keys are presented.

"I was in tears the day they said my application was accepted," said single father John Sprong, a horticulturalist at Coastal Carolina University.

Sprong promised his son, Andrew, they'd have a house some day. "If I didn't have this house, I couldn't afford a one-bedroom apartment here."