MASHPEE – Latoya Green, mother, worker, and lifelong Mashpee resident, spent hours putting sweat equity into her new affordable home over the last 10 months.
But by Saturday, the soon-to-be lawn was seeded, the siding and roofing completed, and the feelings of thanks and accomplishment were overflowing.
“It’s a blessing, I love my community,” she said. “I never left Mashpee, and it’s good to know everyone backed me when it came to this.”
A few years ago, Green filed an application with Habitat for Humanity to enter the buying lottery on an affordable home yet to be built.
It’s the 17th home to be built by Habitat in the town of Mashpee. The process necessitates certain income brackets which make buying and owning a house on Cape Cod extremely difficult.
The opportunity received 28 other applications, but Habitat for Humanity Cape Cod Executive Director Victoria Goldsmith said Green’s tenaciousness, and a little luck, set her apart.
“She’s a person who really sets the priorities and had a lot of determination,” Goldsmith said. “To take that chance to submit wage stubs, tax returns and put in a day every week in sweat equity on top of her full-time job and her kids is really a great way to stay in her home town.”
Green and her ancestors have remained in Mashpee for a long, long time. A member of the Wampanoag Tribe, Green joined hands with her friends in family during a prayer and blessing ceremony at the house Saturday.
A few handmade housewarming gifts were also bestowed upon the Green family, including bookcases built, painted and filled by students at Falmouth Academy and Camp Burgess in Sandwich and a membership to the Sandwich Heritage Museums and Gardens.
A quilt was also presented to the family, as per the tradition of Habitat home ceremonies.
Another home on Quinaquisset Avenue will open for another family shortly.
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