A single mum of three beautiful boys, Celeste has spent years trying to secure a safe place for her family to call home. Juggling multiple jobs while homeschooling her children with unique learning needs, she dreams of the day when her hard work pays off, and her boys can feel safe enough to have an address they consider home.
In Victoria, our affiliate office Habitat for Humanity Victoria provides a hand-up for families like Celeste’s to have an affordable pathway towards home ownership. They believe that everyone deserves a decent place to call home.
“A home to us means stability, and for anyone, stability is absolutely important. That’s a fundamental human need. But for those of us who are neurodivergent or autistic, it is absolutely essential to have stability. For my sons and I, unfortunately, we haven’t had stability for a very long time.”
Celeste first heard about Habitat for Humanity Victoria before coming to Melbourne. When she heard about the home building program that Habitat Victoria offers, she reached out to explore an affordable option into home ownership with our support.
After going through the application process, Celeste was approved as a Partner Family with Habitat Victoria, commencing a partnership towards building her own home with an interest-free loan arrangement.
As part of Celeste’s partnership with Habitat Victoria, she will contribute 500 hours of sweat equity into the house build as well as with the Habitat Victoria ReStore social enterprise in Rosebud. Her sons would occasionally come down and help out as well.
When her house is complete, her family will receive the keys to their new home, where they can put roots down and thrive. She’ll be the 70th Habitat for Humanity Victoria Partner Family to secure a hand-up into home ownership.
If you would like to volunteer to help more families like, Celestes, please visit our volunteer pages; for Habitat Victoria here and for all other states at Helping Hands. To read more about our work in Australia visit: https://habitat.org.au/category/stories-from-home/