LI Habitat homes revisited: How four homeowners made out

Every year, around 1,000 Long Islanders apply to buy about 10 Habitat for Humanity houses, hoping the discounted homes will provide safe and affordable places to live.

While most are success stories – disabled children move into handicapped-accessible houses, financially-strapped parents get an affordable mortgage and families get space to spread out – some still find themselves struggling.

Bryan Lazarus, director of family services for Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk, said they endeavor to keep people in their houses for the term of the mortgage, usually 30 years.

But sometimes people want to sell, and for the rare instance when someone “can no longer really afford the home, we try to help them in that transition,” he said.

People applying for the estimated 6-8 Suffolk Habitat houses each year and the two in Nassau must show a financial need, yet an ability to pay a small mortgage.

They must spend 300 hours volunteering with Habitat, building their and others’ houses.

“We partner with a family; we will help them build that house and at the end of the process, we’re going to help them purchase that house,” Lazarus said.

In Nassau County, Myrnissa Stone-Sumair, Habitat’s executive director, said she has seen one case in which the homeowners needed to sell the house.

That five-person family relocated from their Hempstead home to Georgia in 2016, selling the house back to Habitat. The following year, Habitat sold the house to a single mother with two daughters.

Stone-Sumair said the more common scenario occurs when a family needs additional help after moving in.

Another single mother of two bought a Habitat house then lost her job shortly after she began raising her grandchild. Habitat, who was the lien-holder, allowed her to get 7-8 months behind in her mortgage payments, Stone-Sumair said. They helped her find employment and secure a federal grant to pay what was owed on the mortgage, she said.

“She definitely is an example [of] how Habitat will work with a family to remain in a home especially when Habitat still holds the note,” Stone-Sumair said.

Here's how it turned out for four other homeowners:

Louis Fata

Louis Fata bought a small Habitat for Humanity house in Mastic Beach more than three years ago after spending what he estimates is $220,000 in rent over 25 years.

Fata, 65, has trouble walking, suffers from daily back and neck pain and leaves the house occasionally, spending time in his “botanical gardens” of a yard.

“It’s peaceful,” he said. “I’m not far from the beach, so when someone can get me there, I can look at nature.”

In 1996, while working as a store manager in a now-long shuttered Caldor in Queens, seven gunmen robbed the store, beating Fata viciously, leaving him with broken vertebrae, requiring 10 surgeries over 20 years.

“I never missed a day’s work in my life and I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.

Unable to work, he collects Social Security disability benefits and workers’ compensation benefits, still barely able to pay his bills.

He purchased the handicapped-accessible Habitat house, taking out a mortgage that at $1,100 per month is less than the $1,300 and $1,450 he was paying at his last two apartments, he said.

Yet Fata said he has struggled to pay all the utilities and maintenance, and recently had to add a security system after a few attempted robberies.

“Bottom line is, I have nothing left …” after paying the bills, he said. “But I try to keep a smile on my face.”

Wyneka Robinson

Wyneka Robinson, a 42-year-old mother of four, including an 18-year-old nonverbal developmentally disabled son, purchased her four-bedroom New Castle Habitat house in 2013, moving up from a three-bedroom Hempstead apartment.

While that rent was relatively low – $875 – Robinson now pays $410 plus taxes and insurance for the $150,000 mortgage.

“It’s a small house but it’s still more space than we had before,” she said. The wheelchair ramp, widened doorways and handicapped-accessible bathroom have changed life for her son, whom she had to carry from room to room in their apartment.

But Robinson wishes she could move, she said, following her retired parents down South.

“For what we’re paying for it, it’s kind of silly to go somewhere else and get into debt. Everything was pretty much built for him,” she said.

Overall, she’s happy to be out of Hempstead, calling Habitat “a very wonderful organization,” Robinson said. “What they do for everyone is just amazing.”

Darrell Page

Darrell Page, a 48-year-old father of three daughters, was volunteering with Habitat to repair houses after superstorm Sandy in 2012 when he realized his family could benefit.

“We put our application in and continued helping them,” he said, gutting and raising damaged houses.

In 2014, he and his wife purchased a three-bedroom, two-bathroom Roosevelt house with a huge yard, giving the family of five the space they needed.

“It’s a beautiful house, it’s a corner property,” he said.

They bought the home for $260,000, paying a $1,600 monthly mortgage, less than the $1,870 for their Long Beach apartment.

“It hasn’t been any hardship, it has been good and they’re lenient if you need some time; you pay the late fee but they don’t throw you out,” he said.

The family has no plans of leaving anytime soon, Page said.

“More than likely we’re going to pay this house off and leave it to the children.”

Dorothy Jordan

Dorothy Jordan, 81, retired from her Roosevelt school job in 2000 and bought her Hempstead Habitat house in 2003, bringing her adult daughter and son and disabled granddaughter with her from their two-bedroom apartment.

“The house I was living in in Roosevelt, the landlord didn’t take care of the house,” she said. “It had leaks and I just wanted my own if I could get it.”

But beyond selling them the safe and worry-free three-bedroom house, Jordan said Habitat allowed her to skip one month’s mortgage so she could focus on visiting her son in the hospital after a heart transplant.

“They are wonderful people,” she said.

The octogenarian has some heart issues herself, staying on medication and using an oxygen tank.

As for being content with the home, daughter Sheila Jordan, 61, said there’s no question.

“We plan on staying here the rest of our lives.”