HELENA — Many families dream of turning a house into a home, but when you work together with the community to actually build it, it means that much more.
“It has meant absolutely everything to me,” said new homeowner Jenna Kavajecz. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Kavajecz grew up in instability, living in foster care, and later on, dealing with personal issues, making it her goal to flip the script…
“Lots of domestic violence in my life until recently, I would say,” she said. “With all of those hurdles, I made it my life promise and dedication to myself to do better for my children. To not have them face those same challenges if it's within my willpower, I am not going to let that happen.”
With Habitat for Humanity, people like Kavajecz can apply for the mutual self-help program, working together to build affordable homes for themselves with help from the community.
Homeowners are selected based on their need for housing, ability to take on a mortgage, and willingness to put in sweat equity, where they put in 700 of their own hours of work on the home. This allows habitat for humanity to keep the cost lower, homeowners paying for just the land, materials, and labor.
Additionally, once a family feels ready to move on, that home is passed on to another family in need.
“If they ever decide to sell the home, the home gets sold to another family who makes a lower income, so the homes stay permanently affordable,” stated Helena area Habitat for Humanity executive director Jacob Kuntz.
Starting in October, construction for these three homes took about 10 months, with over 200 volunteers putting in 1000 hours of work on the project.
When Kavajecz’s coworker Mark Greytak heard about her efforts, he jumped in to help, putting in 100 of his own volunteer hours to get the house finished.
“I almost teared, well I did tear up a little bit,” Greytak said. “It was just really nice to see that finally, instead of having to move from one place to another, they have a home, a stable foundation, which is fantastic.”
Habitat for Humanity has already built over 50 homes locally, and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. They have over 250 applicants on the wait list, 10 homes in active development, and plans for over a thousand homes to be built in East Helena spanning across the next 15 years.
For now, after being handed over the keys and moving trucks all loaded up, Kavajecz and her family can start turning their house into a home.
“Incredibly rewarding experience, and I'm so glad that this moment is finally here,” Kavajecz said. “I worked really hard for this day, and it's just almost surreal for it to come to fruition.”
