“I’m so excited! I’m so ready!”
– Jannetta Garrett, Habitat KC homeowner
After years of spending money on rent and feeling she had little to show for it, Jannetta Garrett is building a healthy and safe home for her family.
“Where we live now has a lot of problems. The roof has caved in six times. It’s drafty and poorly insulated. My bathroom pipes freeze every time it’s below 30 degrees, so I have to crawl under the house with a hairdryer to thaw them. If I waited for the landlord, it would be days before he’d fix it.”
On top of the high energy bills and ever-increasing rent, Jannetta says her current home is too small to fit her family’s needs. Her grandchildren, who visit on the weekends, don’t have room to play, and there is no space for her mother, for who Jannetta provides daily care.
“I go to my mother’s twice a day, seven days a week to help her, and twice a week we go to dialysis. My mother lives on the third floor and the elevator breaks down pretty frequently, so we have to call the fire department to help her get down the stairs; otherwise, she’d be stuck there for days. But once my home is finished, she’ll move in with me, and it will be a lot easier for the both of us.”
Looking forward to the day she receives her keys, Jannetta says the thing she’s most excited about is to stop paying rent and to live in a place that is entirely her own.
“I’m through with paying rent. The cost is always going up and you’re not getting anything for it, but when I move into the home that I’ve built, there are dreams that I want to do. I’ve got big plans to paint and decorate and really make it my own.”