Congratulations to Shanda for Paying Off her Habitat Home Mortgage!

Please join us in congratulating Shanda on paying her final mortgage payment and completely owning her Habitat home as of this March!

“It feels wonderful,” Shanda shares after sending in her final mortgage payment. Today she’s celebrating this new life achievement.  “The house I now own is the house I raised my children in.” 

For Shanda, her son, and her daughter, their Habitat home has meant stability. Shanda looks back over the years in her home and what it meant to her, “This home meant being able to have stability in raising children. Somewhere they could always call home.”

Shanda moved into her Habitat home just before Christmas in 1992 with her 2-year old son. Now in his mid-twenties, Shanda’s son is in the process of becoming a first-time homebuyer in Aurora. Shanda’s daughter was born after they moved into their Habitat home. At age 17, she’s never had to experience moving or changing schools because she’s grown up with the stability of her home.

Shanda’s proud of everything she’s been able to accomplish through homeownership with Habitat. She’s especially proud of the example she’s been able to set for her kids, “My children know to aim high and that there’s nothing they can’t do. They’ve seen me do it and they know they can do it.”

Before partnering with Habitat, Shanda and her son lived in a cramped, one-bedroom apartment. For Shanda, not only was her new Habitat home affordable, it was also just a few blocks away from her work – saving her time and transit costs.

The Denver Post featured Shanda’s hard work leading up to her application for a Habitat home back in 1989. She moved to Denver in 1987, then dependent on government assistance programs but determined to find work. She completed a Community Visions course and became a home health aide in order to provide for her newborn son. With steady employment in her new career, Shanda was approved for a Habitat home loan a couple years later. Click here to read the full Denver Post article.

Shanda’s vision for herself and her family over the years means she now lives in her own, completely paid-for home. It wasn’t easy, she says, “If you love something, that’s when you take all your energy, love, and power and put that into it, so it can grow and be something you are proud of.”

To help more families like Shanda’s build themselves a brighter future through homeownership, click below.