Cicely Caldwell had always wanted to own a home, but it seemed as if her dream would never come true.
The lifelong New Jersey resident and her five children spent the last decade in limbo, without a permanent roof over their heads.
“For years, my husband and I suffered financially. And with our marriage eventually ending in divorce, I was left with one income, which made things a lot worse,” says Caldwell, 43. “My children and I were sleeping in motels, in the homes of family members, in our church, on anybody’s floor and even in our car; and sometimes we were not even all together.”
When she finally did find an apartment, it was small; the six had to share the two-bedroom space.
But at the end of 2019, things changed: After her shift one evening as an office manager for a mental health center, Caldwell, who has an associate’s degree and is a certified medical administrative assistant, drove up to her post office box and sat in a quiet prayer. “I was in the process of getting my life together, and I said, ‘God, what should I do next?’” she says.
When she retrieved the mail, she discovered a letter from Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity notifying her of a new build in Montgomery Township.
“I had applied once before, several years ago, but I wasn’t chosen,” she says. “I called when I was still in the car and signed up for the housing workshop.”
After that daylong event, which covered everything from home buying to house maintenance, Caldwell thought she had a “strongly good chance” of being selected.
She was, indeed, income-qualified and was chosen to become the owner of the 54th house Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity has built since it was established in 1991 to address the growing need for affordable homes for families like Caldwell’s in Hunterdon and Somerset counties.
Like the owners of the organization’s other homes, Caldwell was not required to come up with a down payment, and her monthly mortgage payments, which carry no interest charge and include reduced-rate property taxes, are less than what she was paying for her apartment.
The house is the first the organization has built in Montgomery Township, which donated the property, and it’s also the first to feature central air conditioning, which came from another donor.
“Our houses typically sell for $125,000 to $200,000,” says Melissa Flynn, the executive director of Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity. “But Caldwell’s is not our typical one-story ranch or box-style two-story home. It’s a two-story home with a wraparound porch; it sets back from the road with a private paved tree-lined drive in a beautiful country setting across from a golf course.”
To satisfy the Habitat for Humanity requirements, Caldwell and her children—24-year-old Taylor, 21-year-old Israel, 20-year-old Awesome, 19-year-old Jordan and 16-year-old Helena—put in 250 hours of what she calls “sweat equity.”
“We did everything from hammer in nails, which I did know how to do, to mixing cement, operating a drill and putting up sheetrock,” she says.
In addition to helping to build their own home and others, the family volunteered in the organization’s Habitat ReStore in Manville, which sells building materials, appliances and new and used furniture and home accessories to the public at a fraction of their retail prices.
The home work, she says, “built a sense of responsibility for my children and a greater sense of appreciation for what’s being given us because they can see the work they put in it.”
Caldwell is excited because the house not only has a front porch, a feature she has always wanted, but also has brand-new furnishings. “Someone read about my story and offered to furnish it,” she says. “I got to pick out what I wanted! The bedroom sets have good mattresses, which I was never able to buy for my children.”
For Caldwell, 2021 has been a year of continuous celebrations. Taylor graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in social work and enrolled in graduate school, Israel passed his GED exam and he, Awesome and Jordan are all in college now.
And everyone is together in the family’s new Habitat for Humanity home.
“I have a lifetime of gratitude,” Caldwell says. “Owning my own home has been in my heart for so many years. I wanted to do this for my children, and I want my story to be an encouragement not only for single mothers but also for single dads or couples who have low incomes. I call Habitat for Humanity my angel because it was the conduit for my prayer.”
Find out more about Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity and its Habitat ReStore at rvhabitat.org.