Blog
Building on Faith: 2020
Building on Faith 2020 sponsored by the Pierce County Deanery
Each year, Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity celebrates partnership with the faith community with a season of building we call Building on Faith. Groups from all faith backgrounds build side by side, working to complete a home. We are glad to be partnering with the Pierce County Deanery, representing twenty five Catholic parishes, as the sponsor for the 2020 Building on Faith house. The home is named the “Saint Joseph House” in honor of Saint Joseph, a carpenter and quiet protector. This is the second home sponsorship for the Deanery, the first having been in celebration of Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Meet the homeowner: Jessica
Jessica says she got shivers when she learned that her Habitat for Humanity house would be the Building on Faith house for 2020. “My mom’s house was the Building on Faith house in 2003,” she said. “It was on Tyler Street. Mine will be at Tyler Court.”
Jessica moved with her mom and three brothers to a Habitat home when she was in fifth grade. “At the time I was upset because I had to move away from my friends,” says Jessica, but she soon settled into her new home and neighborhood. “Our neighborhood on Tyler Street was really tight.”
But early last year Jessica thought her chance at homeownership had slipped away. On the very same day she found out she had been matched with a Habitat house at Tyler Court, she also lost her job. “I received the best news and the worst news all in the same day.”
With encouragement from Habitat and her lending partner, Jessica didn’t give up. Having spent the
previous summer doing 200 sweat equity hours at Tyler Court, Jessica was determined that was where her forever home would be. “I built all summer with the people who live here. These are my neighbors.”
Jessica immediately started applying for jobs and within three weeks, had landed a new one. “I’m so grateful for them sticking by me and not giving up on me.”
On July 11, 2020, Jessica worked alongside a dozen Catholic parishioners to raise the first walls of her home – sponsored by the Pierce County Deanery and named for St. Joseph.
From August to February, church volunteers worked in small groups nearly every Saturday to help construct the home. 57 volunteers from seven different churches worked on Jessica’s house over the course of six months, doing everything from sheathing the walls to final landscaping.
On April 10, 2021 Father Jerry Burns, head of the Pierce County Deanery, prayed with Jessica and blessed each room of her home. Jessica feels that its fitting her home is the Building on Faith house. “These last few years I’ve had blessing upon blessing.”
Wall of Hope
The first wall raised in every Building on Faith home is the Wall of Hope.
Thanks to these Wall of Hope partners for their contribution this year:
Apex Engineering | BCRA | Blackwell Real Estate | BRC Family LLC | Coldwell Banker Danforth | Commerce Home Mortgage | Frost & Company, PLLC | Harborstone Credit Union | Hawkins Poe Real Estate | Heritage Bank | HomeSight | HomeStreet Bank | Kitsap Bank | Kitsap Credit Union | Milgard Windows & Doors | Morton McGoldrick | Moss Adams LLP | MultiCare Health System | Newland Communities | Our Savior Lutheran Church | Panattoni Development Company, Inc. | Parametrix | Parker, Smith & Feek | PrintNW | Puget Sound Title Company | Rainier View Christian Church | Regence/BlueShield | Remy Properties | The Rush Companies | Second Use, Inc. | Seneschal Advisors LLC | Sound Credit Union | St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church | St. Leo’s Church | St. Mark’s Lutheran Church by the Narrows | Tacoma Community College | Tacoma Lutheran Retirement Community | Tacoma-Pierce County Association of Realtors | Timberland Bank | Transportation Club of Tacoma | Trinity Lutheran Church | The Truss Company | University Place Presbyterain Church
To get involved in Building on Faith and/or Wall of Hope, please contact us.
Read about past Building on Faith seasons: 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014