‘New beginning’ –  Work starts on two Habitat homes in QC

The future owner of a home that will be built near downtown Moline next year says she’s ready to get to work on her family’s new house. She has a new hammer and shovel to help with that work. “I’m just so happy today. … I want to thank everybody for this,” said Koko, who, […]

The future owner of a home that will be built near downtown Moline next year says she’s ready to get to work on her family’s new house. She has a new hammer and shovel to help with that work. “I’m just so happy today. … I want to thank everybody for this,” said Koko, who, along with her son and daughter, will occupy one of the latest homes to be built by Habitat for Humanity of the Quad Cities volunteers (Habitat does not identify its partner families by full name.)

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Koko, her family and about 30 other people from the community attended a Habitat groundbreaking ceremony on a cloudy, cold Saturday morning, April 5. The ceremony took place at the site of a Habitat home No. 143 which is now a vacant lot at 2510 Fifth Ave., located between two homes. But the lot will soon see life. Construction is scheduled to start Thursday, April 10, and the home could be ready for its new family in about nine months, said Tom Fisher-King, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Quad Cities. The new home will have about 1,200 square feet and be in an architectural style that Habitat officials call a narrow ranch. Saturday’s event also included a second groundbreaking ceremony. That event – for Habitat home No. 144 – took place at an empty lot at 1402 18th St., East Moline. It will be the future home of Akouyo and Kokouvi and family. That home will also be about a 1,200-square-foot narrow ranch house and should be completed in about nine months. During Saturday’s ceremony in Moline, Koko received that shovel and hammer to symbolize the sweat equity work she will put into the new home in the coming months.  Habitat partner families must complete a minimum of 250 volunteer hours of sweat equity and attend mandatory homeownership preparation classes with the support of a volunteer mentor. When their build is finished, partner families purchase the home from Habitat with affordable monthly payments on a zero-interest mortgage. The partner families will also get a lot of help from hundreds of volunteers from the community who will help Habitat projects. “We are very blessed to have the best volunteers in the Quad Cities. … We thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” said Zach Currier, family service/volunteer coordinator for Habitat, during Saturday’s ceremony. Organizers also praised the sponsors helping with the projects. The East Moline home sponsors are Russell, CNH, Arconic, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, QC Community Foundation and the QC Housing Council. The Moline home sponsors are the John Deere Foundation and Mel and Judy Rullman. Ms. Rullman was at the Moline ceremony, representing her late husband, Mel, and to welcome Zoko and her family to what will be her new home. “I’m very excited about this. It’s been a dream, but it’s taken years to get here,” she said. During the groundbreaking ceremony, she added that her biggest hope is that the family will have many happy memories in the new house. Ms. Rullman had another reason to be happy. Just before Saturday’s events, her grandson surprised her with an unexpected visit to the groundbreaking event. Saturday’s start of two new Habitat homes is just the beginning of big things to come for the organization. Habitat Quad Cities has two home builds under way in Davenport. The group also hopes to break ground on three additional home builds later this year. Mr. Fisher-King told the crowd that volunteers are also busy with home repairs and building ramps for homes. In fact, they just completed building ramp No. 102 with the 103rd ramp project in the works, according to Habitat’s Facebook page. (Go here for more on the ramp program and see an application to have a ramp built.)  “Families can thrive in their own homes. …  This is a symbol of a new beginning,” he added.