Lawton family will take ownership of new Habitat for Humanity home

A single-parent family is moving into their own home Sunday, ending a years-long drought for Lawton-Fort Sill Habitat for Humanity.

Shannon Sadler and her children Antonio, Alonzo and Illyanna, are participating in the Habitat for Humanity’s program that gives residents a chance to own a home, with a mortgage they can afford. For Sadler, that is a home in the Ranch Oaks Addition donated to Habitat for Humanity. Volunteer workers began work in 2021 to take the structure “down to the studs” and rehabilitate it, said Habitat for Humanity Treasurer Patty Neuwirth.

The result is a home that Sadler will purchase from Habitat for Humanity on a 30-year, no interest loan, Neuwirth said, adding Sadler and her family and friends were part of the work force that updated the structure. That means she will have both sweat equity and financial resources in her new residence.

Neuwirth said the effort is part of Habitat for Humanity’s ongoing efforts to provide homes to those who otherwise could not afford to own one, while also upgrading neighborhoods. It’s an effort that slowed down drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, explaining that is why it has been several years since Lawton-Fort Sill Habitat for Humanity has selected a new home owner. That drought ends at 2 p.m. Sunday with the transfer of keys to Sadler. Volunteers were still on site Thursday putting the finishing touches on the house that will be transitioning to a new owner.

Neuwirth said Sadler will become the group’s 20th house recipient, joining the ranks of those who are making mortgage payments to Habitat for Humanity. Those home mortgage payments (the organization acts as a “bank”) are supplemented with donations and income generated by the Building Supply Center to allow the group to continue what it does best: renovate an old structure into a new family home.

The program has been successful.

“We have several homes that will be paid off in the coming year,” Neuwirth said.

Eunice Marple, Lawton-Fort Sill Habitat for Humanity office manager, said the organization’s mission is to work in partnership with God and people to develop housing for people in need building and renovating structures “so there are decent houses in decent communities in which every person can experience God’s love and can live and grow into all that God intends.”

She said the organization partners with others to build modest but adequate housing, a goal they pursue across the nation and in countries across the world.

“The ultimate goal of Habitat for Humanity is to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the face of the earth by constructing and building adequate and basic housing,” Marple said. “Furthermore, all our words and actions are for the ultimate purpose of putting shelter on the hearts and minds of people in such a powerful way that poverty housing and homelessness become socially, politically and religiously unacceptable in our nations and world.”