A ‘miracle’: Family gets new home thanks to Habitat for Humanity York County

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine —  Alicia Harmon stood in a bare room on the second floor of a new house on Mills Road in Cape Porpoise on Tuesday and said what she expects she will love most about the place.

“Being a mom,” she said. “Seeing my sons raised in a stable place.”

That’s right. The New Englander is not just a house. It’s a home. Specifically, it is Alicia’s home, one in which she and her husband, Derek, will raise their two sons, Gaberiel, 11, and Grayson, 4.

And though the house stood empty on Tuesday – not a couch or a bed or a curtain or a rug in sight – it was already as warm and welcoming as a hearth. After all, it is a home built by the volunteers of Habitat for Humanity York County.

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The organization dedicated the home during a special ceremony on Tuesday, one that even the afternoon’s much-needed rain could not damper.

At the end of the dedication, David Doubleday, the man who donated the land on which the Harmons will reside, officially presented the young family with the keys to their new home. With a sense of occasion, and with a crowd of family members, friends, neighbors and volunteers watching, Derek turned the key in the front door’s lock and opened his new home to visitors for the very first time.

Moments later, as he stood in his future bedroom, Derek said he thinks he and his family will be ready to officially move into their new home in about a month. A woman approached him with a gift — a state of Maine flag to raise on the new pole in front of their home.

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Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that works with families to build and improve places that they can call home.

“We believe affordable housing plays a critical role in strong and stable communities,” the organization says on its website.

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Those who are interested in volunteering for or donating to Habitat for Humanity are encouraged to call (207) 985-4850 or visit habitatyorkcounty.org.

To be selected for a Habitat for Humanity home, applicants must meet three basic criteria: need, a willingness to roll up their sleeves and work on the construction, as indeed the Harmons did, and the ability to pay. As Amy Nucci, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity York County, once said during an interview about the construction of a home in Springvale in 2019, the organization is “not a giveaway program.”

Homeowners purchase homes through an affordable mortgage, which is recycled to support the creation of future Habitat for Humanity homes. According to Nucci, the organization generally partners with households earning up to 60% of the area median income.

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The application process is quite involved. Habitat personnel visit qualified applicants’ homes to assess their needs. They compile all the information they gather into an objective scoresheet, which enables the organization to select the family that best meets the three qualifications and most shows a need for housing.

New home a dream come true for Harmons

In 2020, the Harmons, who are currently living in a camper in Arundel, got the news about their future Habitat home at the best possible time: the Christmas season.

“We definitely viewed it as a miracle,” Derek said at the time. “It was the best Christmas present we could ever get.”

During the dedication on Tuesday, Derek once again described his family’s new home as a miracle and read a passage from the Bible to underscore the sentiment.

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“We would like to express our most sincere gratitude and appreciation for all the amazing blessings you have given us over this formidable build project,” Derek said to everyone gathered who was involved in the project. “Thank you for being our friends, mentors and partners in this process.”

Nucci led the dedication and welcomed Habitat Board Chair Doug Fraser, construction manager John Roberts, Kennebunkport Select Board Chair Ed Hutchins, and Sarah Lawrence, a spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, as guest speakers.

Pastor Andrew Warde, of Grace Point Church in Biddeford, officially blessed the home. Pastor Joe Everett, of Village Baptist Church in Kennebunkport, introduced the Harmons to the crowd, welcoming them onto their front porch and presenting them with a new Bible.

Moments before the ceremony began, Doubleday stood across the street and watched as the crowd gathered. Doubleday, who lives in Kennebunk, said he donated the land because he knows how difficult it is for people who work in Kennebunkport to live there. While Derek now works at an eatery in Wells, he served as a sous-chef at Hurricane Restaurant in Dock Square at the time Habitat selected the Harmons for one of their future builds.

Doubleday said he finds it rewarding and exciting to have donated the land and now to see it transformed into a home for a young family – a family who one day will have next-door neighbors, as Habitat is currently constructing a second home on the site.

“I’m so excited for them that a dream is beginning to come true,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Maine family gets new home thanks to Habitat for Humanity York County