Lakes Area Habitat For Humanity Celebrates Completion Of 112th House

Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity celebrated the completion of their 112th house for a local family in need. This one was unique, as it was a house that was in line to be demolished but was instead moved and refurbished for a deserving family.

“Today’s the most important day of our entire program for the family, for our program, when we have the opportunity to bring together the community to showcase what serving families in need looks like and join together in celebration of their soon-to-be home that they’ll own,” said Kevin Pelkey, Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity Executive Director.

Mandy Miller and Brian Andrews are officially homeowners.

“The whole time we would work on the house, we would just think about things that we would be able to do once we were finally in here, and so now we can just start being able to do those things,” said Mandy Miller. “So that’s pretty exciting.”

Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity was established in 1990 and works to provide affordable housing to families in need.

“There’s a criteria list that we have so the families have to take the first step and apply and then we have our system of checking to make sure they meet our particular guidelines, and once we have those checked then we actually visit them in their homes,” explained Pelkey.

This was the first of five houses that were moved when the city of Baxter needed to expand Cypress Drive. Instead of demolishing the five houses that were in the way of the road expansion, they reached out to Habitat for Humanity for help.

“This has been a very intriguing and very unique experience: the city reaching out to us asking us to be partners in helping save five homes from the wrecking ball,” added Pelkey.

Mandy and Brian have dreamed of owning their own home after renting for years with their family of eight.

“The most exciting thing for us is the fact that our kids have space and area to just be able to play and be kids,” said Miller.

The Habitat crew is looking forward to the completion of the next house in the project which will be right next door. They hope to have it ready for another deserving family by Christmas.

Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity serves Cass, Crow Wing, and Hubbard Counties and the City of Staples.