Faith Leads Family to Habitat- The Velasquez Family’s Story

Hello,
We are Rosie and Reno Velasquez, and we have 3 children, ages 2, 11, and 12.
After watching the cost of our previous apartment continue to rise more and more each year, we made a difficult decision to downsize our apartment in order to save and be able to purchase a home for our growing family.
Unfortunately, things did not work out the way we thought.
We currently live in a small 2 bedroom 1 bathroom duplex which hasn’t been easy for us. The apartment we live in has water damage that caused sinking in the back of the building and we have problems with the power shutting off when it rains. The neighborhood we live in is not the safest. It’s known for heavy drug activity and as a result, we don’t allow our children to go outside and play as often as they’d like. That got even harder for us when the pandemic hit because all sports and activities that our children were involved in got cancelled.
Growing up, we both were raised by single mothers and never had stability. We were constantly moving to different homes and different schools. We desire to provide stability to our children that we did not have. That starts with a home that they can grow in, that will allow them the opportunity to be successful and make long-term friends.
We are a family of believers in Christ and know that God can do anything. After applying for multiple home loans and getting denied for one reason or another, we knew that it was out of our hands. We fasted and prayed while we waited patiently. One morning, we were reading the paper and saw an article about a family that had just purchased their home through Habitat for Humanity. We honestly did not think we’d even meet the requirements but decided to research anyway. Out of faith, we went ahead and printed out the application and turned it. Within a month we got a call that Habitat was interested in possibly partnering with us. We went through the entire application process and were approved by the board.

We are thankful and blessed to have been given this opportunity. All the glory belongs to God. We are looking forward to going on this amazing journey to homeownership!

With love,

The Velasquez Family