Wilmington home building gets help from working women

Underneath her pink hardhat, Wilmington's Sheniquia Brown looked at the bones of her new East Side home and imagined a life far away from East Third Street. 

She was surrounded Thursday by women at work, all volunteers putting sweat into construction meant to rehabilitate Wilmington's housing stock. But for Brown, a single mother too afraid to let her daughter play outside in the city, the project was personal. 

"Before your eyes you see something real. It's something you're going to be able to touch and live in soon," Brown said. "We built this, me and my neighbors." 

The North Church Street project eventually will house Brown and others in homes built by Habitat for Humanity, an international non-profit focused on affordable housing. Brown won't move in until the end of the year, but Thursday was a special day.

For the last 11 years, Habitat for Humanity National has hosted Women Build Week, an
initiative which has brought 117,000 women together to build or repair 4,500 homes.

"It's important as women that we come together and do stuff like this just to empower each other," said Halima Wilder, a Middletown resident volunteering at Thursday's build.

Wilder has been on Habitat for Humanity sites before, and she said having grown up in an inner-city environment inspired her to lend a hand at making those settings better. 

"We can dedicate some time to really help someone accomplish something as big as getting a house, and I really want to do that," Wilder said. 

Many of the ladies volunteering Thursday were unfamiliar with Skilsaws and other power tools buzzing on site. But with a little instruction, they got the hang of it and went to work building the row homes' fence and walls. 

One of them was Wilmington City Council President Hanifa Shabazz, who helped organize the women that turned out for Thursday's service project. 

"I own houses of my own and have on my own done basic repairs. A little selfishly, I got to learn a little bit more about construction and repair work, but also while helping others," Shabazz said. "I do understand why men have a thing for their power tools." 

The East Side is rife with vacant homes, Shabazz said, and establishing new single-family housing is a part of the Council's vision for the city's future. 

"Whether it's through legislation or sweat equity, we're all eager to do what's necessary to provide quality housing for our citizens," she said. 

Brown doesn't like where she lives now. 

She said neighborhood residents don't inspire her with a sense of safety or confidence her daughter, an 8-year-old, is set up to grow in a healthy environment. 

"I don't let my daughter play outside, I'll just say that," Brown said. "It's just not acceptable for me and her at the present time. Habitat gave us an opportunity." 

It's the same kind of opportunity Brianna Vega, now a Wilmington resident, got when she was a child living in Washington, D.C. So on Thursday, she wanted to help out.

"I was raised by a single mother. It was just her and me and my two younger sisters, and she raised us by herself. In 2002, she was blessed with a Habitat for Humanity home," Vega said.

"I'm a part of giving back to other people because that was a blessing in our life."