Habitat for Humanity has been building homes in the Monroe County community since 1988 and recently reached an important milestone. The organization built and dedicated its 200th home to a local family in Bloomington.

Reaching 200 homes was a huge event for the agency, and a reminder of all the good they do for the community. The homes they’ve built have helped over 700 individuals, 400 being children.

“A lot of that has been thanks to the community support that we have, because we can only build houses that we have funding for. So our funding from individuals in the community has increased, which has allowed us to increase our capacity,” says Wendi Goodlett, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County.

Reaching the 200 homes is more than just a milestone; it’s a reminder of how much the company could expand to help more than just those on its housing list. The organization hopes to widen its net and start aiding other low income families as well; but for now it’s important to celebrate this incredible event and home.

A home is unique in more than one way.

This home was built for Jennifer Blythe, her husband Shawn, and their two children Alexander and Lirum. Growing up, Jennifer didn’t have much. Her and her family worked hard but still lived paycheck-to-paycheck. When Jennifer grew older, she promised herself that she would work hard and build a better life for her and her family. She went to college at Vincennes University, graduated with a paralegal degree, and felt like her life was on the right track. Not too long after graduating she met her husband, Shawn.

Things seemed to be going well for Jennifer, but then she got her first seizure. “I literally cannot go anywhere without [my husband] because my seizures…they’re uncontrolled,” says Jennifer.

Since then she has had difficulties controlling them and needs to take her husband with her everywhere she goes. Her disability has made it nearly impossible for her to use the degree she worked so hard for. “No one will actually hire me to do the work that I’m trained to do,” says Jennifer. Her husband also suffers from a spine condition and is disabled, which makes it hard for him to work as well. These factors have made finding and keeping a home for them and their children challenging, especially in Monroe County. “An apartment is extremely expensive here,”says James Gibbons, vice president of IU Habitat for Humanity. “If you worked a minimum wage job you’d have to work 94 hours a week just to be able to afford a two bedroom apartment here in Bloomington, which just isn’t sustainable.”

Currently, the Blyth family lives in a home with doors too small to fit Jennifer’s wheel chair and carpeted flooring which makes it difficult for her to get around inside. Their new home will be completely wheelchair accessible, both in and outside. “When it’s completed there will be a wheel chair ramp that goes around the backdoor and the driveway will be by the front door so that I can get into both,” says Jennifer.

Jennifer and her family spent years waiting to be approved for a Habitat home. “We were finally accepted and it was just like..is this really happening?” says Jennifer. Although her and her family finally made the requirements, there was still a lot of work to be done. “It’s motto is a ‘hand up, not a hand out’ so everything is earned. So, to become a home owner through Habitat you need a need for housing, an ability to pay, and a willingness to partner. So through those three things, each adult in the family needs to donate 250 hours of sweat equity.” says Gibbons. While recipients of Habitat homes tend to use manual labor when helping build their homes, Jennifer and Shawn were unable to because of their disabilities. Instead, Shawn helped out around the office and Jennifer knitted hats and tapped into her knowledge from her paralegal degree.

While the home is finished, the Blyth family will not be able to move in right away. They say living off of Social Security has made it challenging to make the intial payments on their new home. A GoFundMe has been created, and has so far raised a third of their funds. The family also applied for a community grant in hopes of getting enough money to move into their home soon.