Single mom gets the keys to her first home with help from Habitat, Warrick Dunn and Catholic High

A community effort—plus some help from former NFL player and Catholic High School alumnus Warrick Dunn—culminated in a single mother becoming a first-time homeowner on Tuesday, Sept. 30. Not only did Shenique sign paperwork on a new house built by Habitat for Humanity and volunteers from Catholic High, but she also received $10,000 worth of furnishings funded by Aaron’s and a $5,000 down payment from Warrick Dunn Charities.

Standing on the front porch of her home, the new homeowner said to her children, “Everything I have done has been with you in mind.” And don’t be mistaken: While yesterday she was given a fully stocked house–down to laundry pods and a fresh cake on the dining table—Shenique put in the work to get to this point for her family.

“It can take up to two years for a partner family to make it through our home ownership program and get to this moment,” says Ritchie Goebel, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge. 

The program includes financial literacy classes, budgeting classes, homeownership classes and a “sweat equity” component—at least 255 hours of helping to build homes for others and themselves. A person then becomes eligible to receive a house from Habitat for Humanity, but not for free. Once construction on the house is finished, it is then sold to the new homeowner for market value and the money goes back into Habitat for Humanity. The organization takes on responsibility for the home and offers a 0% interest mortgage, rather than having the new homeowner pay a mortgage to a bank. 

Shenique has been putting in her sweat equity hours since February, when she ceremoniously hammered the first nail into her future home. It has been her house from the start.

“Shenique was out here every build, and we got to talk to her and get to know her a little bit,” says Lisa Harvey, president of Catholic High. “It’s a great opportunity to see the whole process from beginning to end.”

This is the fifth home that Catholic High has sponsored with Habitat for Humanity, but the school has been involved with the Youth Build since 2001. For Shenique’s house, Catholic High participated in what amounted to almost 12,000 hours of both construction and fundraising. “This is just the best project, giving people homes,” says Catholic High principal Tom Eldringhoff. “The work is unbelievable.”

“It really takes all of us to come together to make something like this happen,” says Goebel. But a post-COVID world has presented new financial challenges over the last few years as prices continue to rise.

“Construction prices increase, and even if we’re increasing our funding, we’re coming up even,” says Liz Dyer, board chair for the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. “The cost of homes continues to go up as well,” volunteer Bill Peak adds. “People aren’t contributing as much charitably, so it’s hurt the program because we don’t have the funds to build houses.”

Dyer says the organization has developed a committee to address this problem and focus on ways to get locals involved with fundraising, like an event that will take place this Friday at Top Golf on North Mall Drive. Proceeds from the event will go directly toward Habitat’s Women Build, which kicks off next weekend.

“The end goal is to build our homes. So [the goal is] to be able to cover the cost of building,” Goebel says. Right now, he says the price to build a house is $120,000, which can be a steep price for a nonprofit. But it’s worth it, and Shenique’s is the 426th home sold through the Baton Rouge chapter of Habitat for Humanity. It is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a spacious backyard and both a front and back patio that will surely see the love and laughter that Shenique declared for it.

“I grew up right off Winbourne,” says Dunn. He honors his late single mother Betty Smothers with his charity’s flagship program Homes for the Holidays, which offers single parent families with home furnishings and down payment assistance—a gift that started Shenique and her family on the right foot. “What my mom wanted for us [was] a place that we could call home,” he says.