Nakala & Keith Matthews
Nakala Matthews had never painted a wall. Or planted a flower...much less a tree. A childhood in apartments made that impossible, and as a young adult not much had changed. Worry about landlords and secruty deposits prevented her from hanging pictures or drapes, or putting down roots of any kind.
Then a move from the Los Angeles area to Bend, Oregon changed all that. Nakala and her husband Keith first moved to Idaho but quickly found their way to Central Oregon--"I needed more trees," Nakala says--where they fell in love with Bend.
A fortuitous newspaper article led the Army National Guard veteran to the American Legion, who were partnering for the first time with the Bend Habitat for Humanity on a homebuilding project for veterans. Though Nakala was not on active duty, she qualified for the program and the couple joined the American Legion. It was at a Legion meeting that they learned they would be the first family provided veteran housing from the new partnership.
Nakala and Keith contributed the required 600 hours of sweat equity to the project. Keith worked on the house itself, while Nakala, pregnant with their daughter Adelina, contributed a combination of hours on-site and in Habitat's store and community service. Habitat referred the Matthews to its partner, Housing Works, which has a HomeQuest Homeownership Program that prepares homebuyers through mentoring, credit repair, budgeting and asset development courses. The Matthews worked with the Housing Works IDA Specialist to establish their IDA.
Through Housing Works the new parents saved $700, to which the IDA Initiative added $1,500, enough for the down payment, closing costs, the first year of taxes and a portion of homeowners insurance.
Nakala remembers the day she and Keith were given the keys to her first real home. The American Legion arranged for a WWII plane to fly over the house, and Girl Scouts presented the flag. "The key was blessed before it was handed to us," she says. "I was teary eyed."
Now the couple hopes to use IDA to help save for Keith's dog grooming business. In the meantime, there's a new baby girl, Haley, and a place to put down roots. "We have a nice little yard," Nakala says. "They gave us sod, lots of flowers...." And the view Nakala longed for as a child. With a park right across the street, "You open the window and you see all kinds of trees."
Nakala and Keith don't plan on moving. "We're going to stay until we give it to our children," seh says. "Now I have a place to put a growth chart on the wall." But of all the things she has done to fix up her first house, Nakala says it wasn't until, "I painted our daughters' room lavender" that she knew she was finally home.
» I bought my own home too!
» I started my own small business!
» I started my own small business, too!
» I went back to school!
» I went back to school, too!
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