Saturday morning’s overcast sky produced a chilly spittle in the 1000 block of Bullitt Avenue. But less-than-ideal weather did not deter dozens of onlookers who assembled expectantly in Keshia Jones’ back yard.
Trevor Lofton, construction supervisor at Habitat for Humanity, hands over the keys to a new home in southeast Roanoke to Keshia Jones, 36, while her daughter, Ava, looks on. On the far left is Karen Mason, executive director for Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley.
They and the 36-year-old single mom had been working for months toward this moment in southeast Roanoke. That occurred with a big cheer as Trevor Lofton, construction supervisor for Habitat for Humanity, handed over the keys for a new, two-story foursquare house to Jones, as her daughter, Ava, 11, watched excitedly.
After a benediction and the presentation of a Holy Bible, the young girl eagerly cut a ribbon stretched across the entrance to the small, back porch-deck.
“Kind of like her doors, [Keshia]’s a ray of sunshine for this neighborhood,” Lofton said as the crowd clapped.
Between 50 and 100 people turned out Saturday morning in southeast Roanoke to celebrate homeownership for Keshia Jones, 36, and her daughter, Ava. Jones, a single mom who works two jobs, has been working toward homeownership under a 15-month long program sponsored by Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley.
And then the crowd streamed through a bright orange back door to get a look at the home’s interior. It had humble beginnings last summer, as a large pile of lumber in a parking lot at Roanoke College in Salem.
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The tidy modular home is the 18th “R-House” produced with help from hundreds of Roanoke College students in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity. Founded in 1976, the nonprofit organization has been building and selling homes to low-income buyers in the Roanoke Valley for the past 31 years.
Including Jones’ house, Habitat built 13 houses in Roanoke this year, bringing to 297 the number it has constructed and sold to low-income working people in the valley during the past three decades. Those structures have housed an estimated 1,200 individuals.
Keshia Jones’ new house, in the 1000 block of Bullitt Avenue Southeast, sports bright orange doors, a front porch, three bedrooms, two baths, air conditioning and more. Students at Roanoke College began building it in a parking lot on campus last summer.
Habitat leverages partnerships with businesses, such as John T. Morgan Roofing and Sheet Metal Co., Lynchburg Crane and One Earth Landscapes Inc., to make affordable homes a reality for hardworking people who otherwise would probably be unable to buy their own place.
Habitat also partners with community institutions such as Roanoke College and the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission. And it fields community volunteers who have backgrounds in construction trades to help keep labor costs down on the finished homes.
In all, it’s a 15-month-long process toward homeownership for Habitat clients, who undergo extensive training and invest hundreds of hours of sweat equity during the program.
Besides learning how to wield a hammer and saw, Habitat clients attend classes in financial literacy, which helps ensure the proud new homeowners understand the responsibilities that come with home ownership.
“Habitat — it’s been a wonderful experience throughout the years with them,” Jones told the crowd from the home’s rear porch. “I’ve grown, cried, laughed, learned how to save money while budgeting my expenses.
“The people I’ve met on this journey have been loving, caring, helpful along the whole process,” Jones added. “There were times when I was scared to climb a ladder, and go into small spaces.
“Everything I experienced out of my comfort zone, and the lovely people from Habitat were there to catch me and help me persevere.”
Jones, a graduate of William Fleming High School, learned of Habitat in 2009 as a young adult in her early 20s. At the time she was childless and living in an apartment off Melrose Avenue northwest. She first applied for the program back then but her application was rejected.
Her interest renewed after she became a mom. In the summer of 2022, she applied again — by then, Ava was 10. And on her second go-around, Jones was accepted.
Incoming freshmen at Roanoke College brace part of a wall for a Habitat for Humanity house the students pre-assembled in sections on the college’s campus in June and July. In all, each of the roughly 500 first-year students contributed two hours of labor to the project. When finished later this year, it will be a two-story, three-bedroom, energy efficient foursquare in the 1000 block of Bullitt Avenue Southeast.
Most Habitat for Humanity homes are stick-built on site. But one house per year has its beginnings in a parking lot at Roanoke College, where incoming freshmen spend part of their summer orientation hammering and sawing and building modular sections.
In August, the modular sections where trucked — slowly — from Salem to Bullitt Avenue in southeast Roanoke, where an awaiting crane lifted them and assembled the superstructure. Saturday ceremony was the culmination of months more work at the site.
Construction crews use a crane to lift pieces of a Habitat for Humanity house onto its foundation on Bullitt Avenue Southeast in Roanoke. The house was built in sections at Roanoke College by the school’s incoming freshman class as part of orientation. The four modular sections were then transported to the job site.
The R-House preconstruction happens under the auspices of Roanoke College’s Center for Civic Engagement, led by Jesse Griffin, a biologist by training. The center provides volunteer service opportunities for students, most of whom are from outside the valley.
It helps students unfamiliar with the area get acquainted and invested in the place they’ll be living for the next four years. The center has 19 different partnerships with various service and charitable organizations, including the one with Habitat for Humanity.
Following the tour Saturday morning, the moving trucks and movers showed up with Jones’ furnishings Saturday afternoon.
“We started [moving in furniture] around 2, and finished around 4 to 4:30,” Jones told me Sunday when I checked in via telephone.
“I’m loving it,” she added. “Ava’s loving it, she’s ecstatic. The house is huge. It’s much bigger than the apartment.”
Among those present Saturday was Phyllis Jones, Keshia Jones’ grandmother and Ava’s great-grandmother.
“She’s proud of me — she tells me that all of the time,” Keshia Jones said. “I was blessed; she could see it.”
After the movers left and friends and family departed, Jones and her daughter spent the next eight or so hours getting everything in the right place.
“Honestly, it was midnight before we finally relaxed,” Jones told me.
So far, her favorite room is the kitchen, which is outfitted with orange appliances and lights — her favorite color.
“I’ve got more space — I love to cook,” she said.
Saturday “was a great day,” Jones said, adding, “I will never forget.”
Roanoke college freshmen build a house offsite for Habitat for Humanity.