Estrada Family

For Christmas, 6-year-old Joseph Estrada received his own bedroom in a house with a fenced backyard and garage. No longer will he squeeze into his grandmother's small apartment with 10 relatives. Joseph ran around the two-story, 1,200-square-foot townhome on Brommer Street on Tuesday with his older brother Anthony and parents Uriel and Jennifer after the family was handed keys from Habitat for Humanity. The young boy wore a giant grin as he checked out the three bedrooms, including mirrored closet doors.

Uriel Estrada, 32, who works as an auto mechanic in Santa Cruz, had tears in his eyes as he spoke of spending Christmas in the family's first home. "It really is life-changing," he said. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity." The Estrada family was given a piece of the American Dream from the affordable housing nonprofit.

Read the Sentinel article.

More Families

The Carranco family was given the keys to their new home on Belvedere Terrace in Santa Cruz at a dedication ceremony in January 2008.

The Berg family was given the keys to their new home in May of 2008.

The Lopez family moved into their new home on Casillas Ave. in Watsonville in June of 2007.

October 2005 was a stellar month for Habitat Santa Cruz and two local families who found out they had been chosen to purchase Habitat homes. Both the Hernandez and Gilbert families immediately began putting in their sweat equity hours at the Rooney Street site. As Estephanie Hernandez says, "I can't wait to get my own room and my own space!"

Dear Members and Volunteers of Habitat,

This letter is to thank you for providing this wonderful house for my family. I want you to understand that this house means a lot to all of us. Sharing a 2 bedroom house with 8 people for many years makes us appreciate your generosity.

Driving home from seeing the new house yesterday my three boys were talking bout how they were going to fix their new rooms. They asked if my husband would build them shelves so they could put their cars on it. Hearing my kids talking about this made me feel so warm inside because I know they are going to be very happy in their home.

My son Alex had asked Judy and Shar whose stuff was in the house. He wasn't understanding that whole house was ours. I still think this is a dream for me and my family.

If I could only show you how much this means to me and my family. For many years we tried to rent a house through the Housing Authority. After waiting 10 years on a waiting list they gave me a certificate to rent a house. Unfortunately the owners and managers of the homes would not rent to us because we had too many in our family (6). So I lost my certificate.

I can go on and on with different stories but I just want you all to know how much I appreciated all you have done.

The best thing about our new home is . . .

"The neighbors! There are several boys my age to do things with." -- Jonathan, 13

"Sharing a room with only one person." -- Joseph, 15

"Whiskers loves it! When she sees herself in the window she thinks it is another cat and scratches the wall to get them." -- Christine, 6

"The neighborhood. There are so many children, and people are nice to us." -- Alex, 10

"We're free! It's what we wanted. We can invite people to our home. The children have a place to do homework. The people next door are a Habitat family; and are very helpful. She's been like my sister." -- Debbie and Manuel, parents

Sincerely,

Debbie Tortoledo