Habitat for Humanity of Madison County

Ever since our Habitat affiliate was first formed 24 years ago, we have been looking forward to the day when our first Family Partner would finish paying off their mortgage.  On the last day of 2010, James Love walked in the front door of our office and made his last mortgage payment; completing a process that began 20 years ago.

James, his wife Debra and their three small daughters were living in what James describes as a “dilapidated house” in Madison, AL.  The house they were renting was in extremely poor condition with no indoor plumbing and no heat, other than a small pot-bellied stove in which they would burn wood or coal to keep warm in the winter.  James says it was very hard, especially with three little girls.  His job with the City of Madison paid only $3.40 an hour back in 1990 and the prospect of ever being able to afford a home was out of the question.

One day, while out with a City road crew, James noticed some new homes being built in Harvest, AL.  He asked one of the construction workers whose homes these were and was told these were Habitat homes.  When he asked how families were able to get one of these homes, a Habitat volunteer told him he should go to the office and fill out an application, which he did the next day.  Two years went by and he had forgotten all about it, when one day a group of people from Habitat suddenly showed up in his yard and asked if they could look around at his deteriorating rental house.  After just a few minutes they said, “Yeah, you qualify all right!”  James and his family were put on a waiting list and six months later in partnership with Covenant Presbyterian Church, his new Habitat home was being built—the first one in Huntsville.

The day they moved into their new Habitat home, James recalls “You should have seen the smiles on my daughter’s faces!  They felt like ‘big shots.’  We had never lived in a real house before, and getting this house was a miracle!”  James also says that getting his house made a big difference in the quality of life for his family.  He noticed that his daughters had struggled with their studies at school; receiving poor grades during the years they lived in the old run down rental house.  The new Habitat home seemed to boost their confidence and all three daughters actually became honor roll students during the remainder of their school years! 

Today his daughters have families of their own and James is very proud of them.  “God is good—He helped me all those years giving me good health and strength so I could work.  My first priority was always to pay our monthly mortgage payments, everything else kind of flowed from there.”  James wife, Debra adds, “James has been a wonderful husband and father and without him, they wouldn’t have this house.  He worked day and night to make ends meet!”  Now that their daughters are grown up, James and Debra have adopted a little boy, Jalen, who will turn two this year. 

We congratulate the Love family for being the first to successfully complete the Habitat dream of owning their own home.  As our affiliate moves into its 25th year, we expect to see more of our early homeowners following in James footsteps and setting an inspiring example for other families today!