Soon.
Perhaps this week, but certainly no later than the end of the month, Flora Coleman and her four children will move to their new home on Wilshire Street in Park Forest.
She couldn’t be happier, she says. It’s a dream come true.
“I now have a home for my kids,” this now contented mother said.
Last Wednesday, Coleman, 42, toured her new three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath house accompanied by her 3-year-old daughter, Kennedy, and a houseful of well-wishers, including those who were part of the Habitat for Humanity core of workers who re-fashioned the once- abandoned house into something glistening with light and brimming with life.
It was a warm welcome almost reminiscent of a scene from that great feel-good movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the one where a new family is welcomed with gifts of bread and salt.
This time, bread, salt, flowers and a Bible were the offerings of hope.
All well and good, but if Coleman sent thank-you cards to all who helped move her family from a run-down house in Chicago Heights, she would need a to sign her name to perhaps more than 100 or so.
Most would be addressed to those connected with the Habitat for Humanity office in DuPage County, whose reach extends throughout the south suburbs. That would include James Escortt, who oversees its community outreach program; associate director Andrew Sparks; chief carpenter Dave Hoffmann, who after running his own business for 23 years, retired and now oversees are rehabbing of houses.
Another batch of cards should go to those who volunteered to help turn a misused and apparently worn-out house into a shining promise of things to come.
She would also need to send nice notes to those in the village of Park Forest that administers a program to buy vacant but still livable houses for resale when Habitat comes calling. Please note, dear taxpayer, the purchase price is at market value, not that absurdly idiotic Cook County property tax evaluation.
Most of all, Coleman, a retired certified nurse assistant, should pat herself on the back, when, during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021, and desperately seeking a way out of a run-down house in Chicago Heights, she reached out to Habitat.
In comments last week at the Park Forest Village Board, Escortt ticked off the criteria for acceptance including the need for a house, the ability to pay the mortgage, the willingness to partner who Habitat with up to 250 “sweat” hours of work, and enough of a percentage of income based on family size to meet the income-to-debt ratio.
Coleman said she was frightened and thought she might not qualify when was told she was some 3% over the income-debt relation because of a monthly $616 car payment. Trade down, she was told. She did and she was told she qualified April 20, 2023, one day before she gave birth to daughter Tristen Cole.
Because she has arthritis, Coleman sometimes needs a walker to get around, yet that did not stop her from completing those 250 hours. She grouted, painted and patched in what was to be her new home.
She also distributed flyers about Habitat programs, worked in Habitat ReStores which stock new and used furniture and appliances, and volunteered whenever and wherever she could to meet those 250 hours.
The day finally came when she walked into what was to be her family’s new home. The red front door was dismaying, as was the interior, which reeked of smoke. The floors needed to be removed as did the debris of the lives of others scattered throughout.
Yet today, the house awaits the day when Coleman turns the lock on the front door and, along with her children, begins a new life in a new home.
Habitat is working on three more houses in Park Forest for three more families who knock on the door of hope, and a sound that resonates what Escortt told the Park Forest Board, of Habitat’s underlying goal.
“We give them a hand up, not a handout, “he said. “We give them a shot at the American Dream.”
Jerry Shnay, at jerryshnay@gmail.com, is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
