Courtesy photo Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan Homeownership Coordinator Jenny Nestell, left, assists Erika Barrett with closing documents for her new home on Friday.

ALPENA — After years of dedication, preparation, and hard work, Erika Barrett closed on her Habitat for Humanity home on Friday, just in time to settle in and celebrate Christmas with her children in their new home.

Located at 317 Bedford Street in Alpena, the home is one of three Habitat homes built on Bedford near Ella White School.

A single mother of four, Barrett has been working with Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan for about three years to take the necessary steps toward homeownership. She has worked three jobs, logging more than 70 hours per week until recently scaling back to two jobs. She has never owned a home before, and she is overjoyed that she and her family will be celebrating the holidays in their new home.

Barrett has four children, and the younger three live with her. Her children are Matthew, 24, Mikey, 22, Angel, 17, and Mason, 13.

On Friday at the closing, Barrett said she had “a mixture of a lot of different feelings.”

“I’ve been working so hard for probably three years now,” Barrett said. “We had a tragic event with my mom. She passed away November 29th of 2021 of COVID.”

“It was one of the hardest things for all of us,” Barrett said. “Everything changed. One of my promises to her was I was going to buy her a house … So then I pushed myself into work to try to deal with the loss.”

She said she was unsure she would qualify for a Habitat home, but she came into the office and said, “Tell me what I have to do. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do.”

Barrett said Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan Homeownership Coordinator Jenny Nestell has been extremely helpful in assisting her through the process.

“This has been a very long, hard process to get through,” Nestell said. “I’m very excited to see her make it to the end and get her keys.”

“She’s been amazing,” Barrett said of Nestell. “I consider her family. She makes it go smoothly and she sets your mind at ease. She was my biggest supporter, telling me ‘Girl, you’ve got this.”

“It just takes a long time to get through the process sometimes,” Nestell added. “For Erika, she worked very hard to get through the process. There were a lot of unknowns facing her, and she just took them as they came and got through them. We got through those little bumps together, and got to the end. So, it’s exciting. It’s life-changing for them, for their family, to be able to walk through a door and call it your own.”

Nestell said they had hoped to get the Bedford Street homeowners into their houses by Thanksgiving, but there were some unexpected delays that pushed the move-in dates back. She added that she is glad the Barretts will be able to spend Christmas in their new home.

“The timing is perfect,” Nestell said. “We always love the fact that things work out. We were hoping to get them in before Thanksgiving, but things, as building houses go, get delayed sometimes. Getting them in before Christmas is a big deal.”

“Never say can’t,” Barrett said, which is something her late mom always told her. “I did it, and here we are today. It’s amazing.”

She said she prayed throughout the whole process and received a lot of support from her church family.

“I would wake up and say, ‘Lord, get me through this,’ and I would take one day at a time,” Barrett said. “It’s kind of surreal. I was trying to do it for my mom.”

She’s excited to see her children enjoy Christmas in their new home.

“Just to see my kiddos have that feeling of home,” Barrett said. “That’s the best Christmas gift right there.”

For more information about Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan, email info@habitatnemi.org, call 989-354-5555,