Building Stability in Midtown

We’re back with another edition of Good News Tues to spread a little joy from our Habitat family to yours. We’re all in this together. Here’s hoping this brings a little light to your day. 

Returning Home to Midtown

Wow! With the city steeped in an affordable housing crisis, amplified by a pandemic, you showed up Thursday night in a massive way to help your neighbors in need. During the Framing the Future Virtual Gala on Thursday evening, you built an entire Habitat home in one night, but you didn’t stop there! Together we raised more than $400,000: a new Framing the Future Gala record!

We can’t begin express how humbled and grateful we are for this tremendous support. On behalf of the families whose lives are being changed through these gifts, thank you.

Thanks to your generosity, families like Channel’s are building stability in our city’s Midtown neighborhood. Stability is a word we use a lot when talking about the benefits of homeownership. For Channel, that word carries significant weight.

“Growing up my family struggled with homelessness,” she says. “Members of my family have roamed from shelters to friends’ houses. It’s my biggest fear.”

A life-long Milwaukeean, Channel grew up in a two bedroom apartment. Throughout her childhood anywhere from 10 family members were living ‘literally on top of each other’ in those two bedrooms.

“It was my mom and her three kids [including Channel], my sister and her two kids, and my other sister and her two kids,” she says. “I sat in the corner and observed.”

Channel saw her sisters’ families move in and out of that cramped apartment, searching for the stability of home. Of her five siblings, Channel will be the first to achieve the safety, stability and comfort of homeownership.

Channel and her six-year-old daughter, Kellise, currently live in a four-unit rental where she says the landlord has become increasingly inattentive. Habitat’s affordable homeownership program will make it possible for Channel to provide her daughter with a brand new three-bedroom home in Milwaukee’s Midtown neighborhood.

“All I do is work and pay bills,” she says. “The financial stability of this home will allow me to live my life more. I’m looking for that exhale. It’s like I’m holding my breath right now.”

Channel admitted there was a lot she didn’t know about how to become a homeowner. She saw her friends paying $1100 for a three bedroom rental, only to see the electricity get turned off or get evicted. She knew she wanted better for her family, but needed some guidance on how to get there. That’s where Habitat came in.

As she’s been learning how to manage her credit and balance her finances in preparation for homeownership, Channel sees an opportunity to share that road map to stability with her siblings.

“Now, I can give them this knowledge with Habitat and show them the way,” she says. “We can leave a legacy on this family.”