More Than Houses: Mercer Habitat For Humanity Helps Families Build Stability
Many Habitat for Humanity partner homes are located in the Quail Run subdivision. (File image).
Sam Warren
Herald Staff
Apart from building homes throughout Harrodsburg, Mercer County Habitat for Humanity works to make the expense of building a new home reasonable.
They hold their partners responsible for part of the building process, but part of the work they do is instructing homeowners how to take care of their homes and holding them responsible for much of the building process is an important part of the aid. Harrodsburg native William Bartleson and his wife Tawaka Bartleson moved into their Habitat home on Davies Street in 1994.
“Habitat does work hard to help the new family to be successful in all aspects of being a homeowner,” said Bartleson.
Families living in Habitat homes are not given homes. Habitat aligns the process and pushes the owners in the right direction, which is why Bartleson takes pride in all of the hard work he and Tawaka put into their home.
“I truly enjoyed working on my home. I got to work side by side with some good people,” he said. “It was good to know that I was putting in the work towards something that was going to be mine.”
Bartleson said he was not aware of the work Habitat did in Harrodsburg before they began helping him. But the impact they made on him and his family was life changing. All in all, Habitat for Humanity handles much of the difficulties that come with building a home, so new homeowners can focus on more important things like financial stability.
“They made sure the monthly payments were very affordable and reasonable. I liked that there were Habitat members available to me when I needed something or had questions,” he said.
Having a home of their own allowed the Bartlesons to grow their family and give their children their own rooms.
Mercer Habitat for Humanity is currently fundraising and looking for volunteers to build their first house post-COVID. For more information on how to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity or to apply for housing call 859-734-5086 or email habitatmercer@gmail.com.
