LANSING | It was a dream come true for the Ramirez family when Joe, Carmen and their three young daughters were able to move into their new home at 17741 Roy St. the night before Thanksgiving.
About 500 volunteers, including those from local churches and schools, worked on the home that has become the third in Lansing that has been refurbished through the Chicago South Suburbs chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
Thrivent Financial and the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development co-sponsored the rehab project.
Saturday marked the official home dedication ceremony for the Ramirez family. A large crowd that included friends, volunteers and Village President Norm Abbott met the family for the ceremony at the Patti Leach Youth Center. An open house and home blessing followed at the Ramirez family home.
“I just can’t express the joy that I’m having right now to finally have our own house,” Carmen Ramirez said.
The family had relocated five times in the past three years and most recently lived in a house in Hammond.
“But it was kind of small,” Carmen Ramirez said. “It was only a two-bedroom. We needed the extra room for our three girls. And this new house has a huge yard.”
Habitat for Humanity provides an interest-free mortgage for qualified families. The families chosen must also provide “sweat equity,” and the Ramirez family put in 400 hours working on their home and at the Habitat ReStore.
“There’s a reason that we’ve got a 2 percent foreclosure rate in the 35-year history of Habitat for Humanity,” Development Director Melvin Thompson said. “It’s because there’s sweat equity involved. Anytime someone is working on their own investment, it makes a difference, I think.”
David Tracy is the executive director for Habitat for Humanity Chicago South Suburbs. He said the three-bedroom, 1½-bath Ramirez home had been a foreclosed property that was bought with funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“It was sitting empty for about three years,” Tracy said. “It’s no longer bringing down the values in this neighborhood.”
The Ramirez home is the first Habitat rehabbed home in Lansing to qualify for Energy Star certification. The spray foam insulation installed along with low-energy windows should result in lower electricity bills for the family.
“This was almost a full-gut rehab,” Tracy said. “We wound up finding mold and asbestos in the house and we had to have those remediated.”
Tracy said Habitat is rehabbing five other homes in Lansing, and four others in the village soon will be bought through federal grant money.
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Posted in Lansing on Saturday, December 3, 2011 6:45 pm Updated: 4:36 pm.
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