RCAC Home Page >
News and Publications >
Self-Help Builder News June 2012 Volume 5, Issue #2 >
Milestone on a long road to success
By Kathy Heinrichs Wiest
This is the first group of homebuilders in the new subdivision on move-in day. Third from the left (in gray) is Edith Arreguis.
Edith Arreguis can already picture enjoying her new home with her son, Leixander. She stands in what will become their living room, imagining reclining on the sofa and watching Leixander play in the back yard. She sees herself soaking away workday stress in the master bath’s new tub.
Edith hasn’t always been this focused on her future—her high school pregnancy crystallized her determination. “Before I was pregnant I didn’t want to go to college, but when I got pregnant I decided to go straight to college and give a better life for my son.”
She completed her medical assistant certificate and found steady work at a local clinic, but housing remained a challenge. Edith and Leixander sleep in a small room in the apartment they share with Edith’s mom, stepdad, and three siblings. Long waiting lists for government subsidized housing and expensive mortgages in safe neighborhoods limit their housing alternatives.
Recalling her own childhood home back in Mexico, Edith doesn’t want her son to grow up in a cramped apartment. She wants him to have a room of his own and a yard to play in. She wants to host the extended family reunions she enjoyed as a child.
That dream carries Edith through the many hours of labor required in this Self-Help Enterprises project. She switched to a noon to 9 p.m. shift at the clinic, doing construction in the mornings. It’s not always easy, she admits. “Sometimes I’m here [working on the house] from 7 to 11 a.m. and then I run home and shower and get to my job. I might not see my baby till ten at night. It’s hard, but it’s worth it.”
Friends and family support Edith. Her babysitter doesn’t charge her when she is building the house. Edith’s two brothers have contributed to construction, and a neighbor, also a single mom, helps build 2 or 3 mornings a week.
For Edith, finishing and moving into her house is more of a milestone on her journey than an end goal in itself. Getting settled means more time to pursue her education—she wants to train as a surgical nurse.
Building her own house through SHE enables Edith to provide a secure home for her son, and continue toward her career goals. “If I’d get a normal house I wouldn’t be able to go to school because it would be too expensive,” she reflects. “There are a lot of people like me who can’t afford going to school, having a job and paying their mortgage.”
With these ambitions, Edith may not find a lot of time to recline on the sofa or soak in her new bath. Providing a good life for her son, however, now seems more possible. “Even though I am so tired,” she says, “I will never regret this opportunity.”