APPLETON, Wis. — Most of us are unfamiliar with this way of life in society.

You’re a single mom and renting an apartment. The rent goes up, but your paycheck does not. So you have to move. But the place you can now afford is in an unsafe neighborhood. You fear for your child. So you move again.

Or you’re living in a duplex, but they sell it. And circumstances dictate you must pack your bags again.

You can’t afford to buy a home and so the cycle repeats, over and over. It hurts. It hurts you but, most of all, you hurt for your child.

“One of the things that we see at Habitat often is that the people that are least able to afford a house are single mothers with children,” said Amy McGowan, director of development at Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity. “It’s so important for them to have that stability. So it takes the community, and that’s what we’re really proud of.”

That community showed up in force Wednesday as the Fox Cities Habitat Women’s Build was working to give that stability to Shaunna Toohey, a single mother of a 10-year-old son.

(Spectrum News/Mike Woods)

“I’ve dreamt of being a homeowner for most of my life,” said Toohey, herself the child of a single mom that often moved from place to place. “But as a single mom, at the rate homes were rising these days, I didn’t know if it would ever be possible. Habitat for Humanity let me keep dreaming with the hopes of one day that that dream would become a reality. And here we are today.” |

The Women’s Build is exactly what it says. The construction crew is nearly all women. In fact, 22 years earlier, right next store, a crew of 400 women put up the first Women’s Build home in the Fox Cities in seven days.

“That we are all together and a lot of the women, I’m sure, have the same walks of life as me with being a single mom,’’ said Toohey of the women’s work crew. “Or just the support that they can give. Having been there before, maybe, and can say that it can happen and everything can be OK."

“Just very grateful and blessed that they’ve all come together to support me. And we’re women. Like, we rock, you know? It just it means a lot.”

There is a process prospective homeowners must go through to qualify to receive a home.

“If they’re not ready to afford a home on their current salary, or their debt-to-income ratio is too high, they’ll usually join the Almost Home program,” said McGowan.

(Spectrum News/Mike Woods)

“Then they work in that program for anywhere from one to five years, depending on their situation. And in that program they have financial and vocational goals that help prepare them for homeownership in the future.”

The homes are not-for-profit and homeowners make zero-interest mortgage payments made possible through donors and supporters.

Toohey said the joy she was experiencing this day was running neck-and-neck with the satisfaction of personal achievement.

“It is a lot of work,’’ she said. “But it’s very prideful. I’m very proud to know that I worked and did what I needed to do financially to get to where I needed to be. And got out of the debt that was holding me down."

“It was a dream to be a homeowner. And it’s prideful. Tiring, but well-received and rewarded.”

Above all else, she won’t ever have to tell her son again they have to move.

“I don’t know if he understands the depths of everything, but he’s very, very excited,’’ Toohey said. “A lot of his friends live in this neighborhood. He will not have to switch schools. And I just keep telling him, ‘It’s ours.’"

“He was very excited and knows that we’ll always have a home. And we’re never moving again.”

Story idea? You can reach Mike Woods at 920-246-6321 or at: michael.t.woods1@charter.com