A new home, a thankful recipient

Rhoda Richardson raised three children on her own. She moved to the area 20 years ago, bought eight-tenths of an acre off of Bull Lake Road near Troy and paid off a trailer house that rested on the property.

Her children grew up, moved away and had children of their own.

She continued to work hard, and her home continued to age.

A member of the local Habitat for Humanity chapter, Kootenai Valley Partners, urged her a year-and-a-half ago to apply for a new house.

“One of the board members came to me because he saw what I was living in,” Richardson said. “He told me I should apply, but I told him those are not for people who work.”

Richardson thought that the Christian-based nonprofit simply handed over newly built houses to poor people. She didn’t need a handout, she thought.

“There’s a lot of misconception that the house is just given to them, but they’re not,” said Dan Thede, board member of Kootenai Valley HFH. “They have a mortgage.”

Richardson didn’t know that past recipients were much like her – hard workers who paid their bills but didn’t earn quite enough to purchase a new house. She didn’t know that they had to have the means to pay a no-interest loan for the cost of building the house.

To Richardson’s surprise, her application floated to the top of the list last year. Kootenai Valley HFH notified her that she would become the chapter’s eighth recipient of a new home, which would be built on her lot.

“By the grace of God I got picked,” she said. “I was speechless. I still feel – oh, I don’t deserve this. I don’t know how to put my happiness into words.”

Richardson is residing with a friend until the house is ready because her trailer didn’t survive being moved.

“They found out they couldn’t move it because it would buckle,” she said. “They had to take it out in pieces because that’s how bad it was.”

Gigantic sun-soaked tamarack and fir trees surrounded a circle of people Sunday afternoon as they stood on mud and the cracked foundation of where Richardson’s trailer house once stood.

HFH members prayed with Richardson and her family, friends and Libby Clinic co-workers. The ground was blessed and Richardson ceremoniously shoveled the wet earth, breaking ground where her new two-bedroom house will rest in about 12 weeks.

Though some work on the house will be paid for – especially work that requires a licensed and certified professional – HFH depends on thousands of volunteer hours to build quickly and keep houses affordable.

Before Richardson will be handed the keys to the house, she will have to contribute “sweat equity” to the project, working alongside volunteers.

She must complete 500 hours of work, 200 of which her family and friends can contribute to. Richardson knows she can count on them for the help.

“They’re real happy for me,” Richardson said. “My daughters, they were there (on Sunday). My son is going to come up (from Oregon) and help do the plumbing.”