catholics for housing

Prayers Are Answered with Help of Catholics for Housing

By Henrietta Gomes
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 2/22/07)

Holding his son with one hand, David Anderson clutched on to his rosary beads with his other hand and silently prayed. Anderson was one of 34 employees of Prince William County who was eligible to be included in a lottery drawing for a chance to purchase one of 19 new affordable homes specially developed for first-time home buyers.
“It’s extremely difficult to find affordable housing,” said Anderson, a teacher at Marsteller School in Bristow. He first found out about the program sponsored by Catholics for Housing from his aunt, who also works for the county. The organization is a regional nonprofit dedicated to the protection and expansion of affordable housing opportunities throughout Northern Virginia.
During the lottery held on Feb. 14, participants were given random numbers, and the first 19 to be called would be the ones given first chances to write contracts for the new townhouses. The houses will cost somewhere between $200,000 to 215,000, which is less than $100,000 from the current market prices in the area for these types of homes.
The new units will be part of Linton Hall Manor, a residential development in Prince William County. The new complex is being built from scratch, and was once used as “cow pastures,” said Christopher Johnston, executive director of Catholics for Housing, which initially bought a little more than 14 acres of land from the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia and arranged for the new construction.
“We have worked very hard on this project for over six years now,” he said, noting the many setbacks along the way. “There were several points when I thought all of it was going to go down the tubes, but we kept praying and working. When you’re doing the right thing, it always works out,” he said. The project has been crafted with private and public partnerships, said Johnston. It is a “new type of solution for the affordable homeownership desires of working families in this area,” he stated.
Being able to purchase a home is a great desire for Anderson, whose incessant prayer has been, “Your will be done,” said Anderson, who is a second degree Knight of Columbus. Although all the participants including himself and his wife Beth were hoping for the chance to write a contract for one of the new homes, their prayers remained the same.
When Anderson realized that the eighth number called was his number he gave out a sigh of relief. “I didn’t want to show a lot of emotion because there were other people there whose numbers were not called yet,” said the parishioner of Holy Trinity Church in Bristow. They felt connected to the cause in a special way because their son, Patrick, was baptized at the Benedictine Monastery near the housing development, which once belonged to that community. “Now we can be close to the monastery,” he said.
“I’ve never wanted anything so desperately that was out of my control,” said Sarah Walters, who was also one of the participants at the lottery drawing. As the single mother of two young children patiently waited to hear her number being called, she said, “I can’t even connect it to another experience. It was nerve racking.”
Walters, a third-grade teacher at Pennington School in Manassas, who has been teaching there for the last seven years, said, “I had been trying so hard to stay here, and I didn’t want to leave the county…” The cost of living in the area, however, was starting to make it difficult for her.
She first heard about the affordable housing from the school’s principal, who informed all the teachers. At that time she knew she had to fill out an application and hope for the best. Walters attended the lottery alone. “I went with guarded hopes,” she said, noting her concerted effort not to get overly excited. She was ready for the chance that she would not be one of the 19. When she came home to tell her children that she was number 10 her eight year-old, who understood what that meant, glowed with excitement. “Mommy, I knew my prayers would be answered,” she squealed. She already decided that her bedroom will be pink.
Edward Williams, an outreach counselor for the Department of Social Services for the Prince William County, and his wife, Wumi, took an extra step after they applied to the program. “We went to the site and prayed. We just prayed a lot,” said Wumi. The Williams’ were number 13 on Wednesday and the experience felt “exciting and unreal,” she said. “I’m just grateful for Catholics for Housing and what they did for us,” said Wumi, who is not a Catholic. “It couldn’t have happened without the help of God. I just pray that more families will be able to experience what we’ve experienced.”
The official groundbreaking for the new homes will take place in one month, said Johnston, and the name of the street where the houses will be built will be named after the Benedictine Sisters.

Henrietta Gomes can be reached at hgomes@catholicherald.com.