‘I Have Something That is Mine’
Taniya couldn’t picture herself where she is today.
Her two children each have a bedroom of their own. Nobody is thumping a broomstick on her ceiling to complain of noise.
Taniya is a homeowner, seated in a room she made into a lounge, the sliding door to her backyard cracked to let in the seasonal air.
“I have something that is mine,” she said. “Something that I worked hard for.”
Her home is a renovated property she bought through the Habitat Homebuyer Program. First-time homeowners are selected through a stringent application process, and if approved, purchase a home with a zero-interest equivalent, 20- to 30-year mortgage.
Taniya, a pipefitter for the Newport News Shipyard, applied to buy a home in 2023 through Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg while living in a two-bedroom apartment. Several times, she followed up with paperwork that the Habitat office requested.
When she got a notification to come to the affiliate headquarters on Warwick Boulevard, she wondered what they would ask.
“I thought it was going to be an interview, and interviews make me nervous,” she said.
Instead, she learned that day her application to purchase a home was approved.
“It was such a big lift off my shoulders,” Taniya said. “I just cried.”
Nothing about her life has been easy, and everything was made worse when Taniya lost her grandmother. She was ready to give up when she saw her grandmother in her dream, which inspired her to set goals.
One of them: own a home by 30; Taniya is 29.
Habitat homebuyers commit to 300 hours of sweat equity. As a single mother with a full-time job, finding the extra hours to volunteer was a challenge. She clocks in from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m.
“The most I could do was three hours every day, so I had to really bust it for a whole year,” Taniya said.
At times, she nearly gave up. Her mother, watching the children, lifted part of the burden.
“I pushed myself,” Taniya said. “I made it happen.”
Taniya doesn’t consider herself handy with tools, but during her volunteer construction hours, she mastered how to use a nail gun and staple gun. She sanded walls, helped with framing, and sealed portions of the house.
“I even learned how to build a deck!” she said.
