News Photo by Darby Hinkley Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan representatives, along with Congressman Jack Bergman, gather on Saturday with two families and one individual to view the progress on the Bedford Street homes they will move into by November. Pictured, standing on the left of the sign, are Jennifer Nestell, Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan homeownership program coordinator, Mason Barrett, Angel Barrett, and Erika Barrett. Crouching in front are David Hux and daughter Alexis Hux. Standing in front of the sign is Jacob Hux, and to his right are Bergman, Ted Fines, Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan executive director, Laura Smith, and Grace Hux. Missing from the photo is Mikey Barrett.

ALPENA — Two families and one individual are excitedly waiting to move into their new Habitat for Humanity homes on Bedford Street in Alpena.

Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan representatives, along with Congressman Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, gathered on Saturday to view the progress on the three Bedford Street homes the families will move into by November.

After years of preparation and guidance throughout the process, these almost homeowners are overjoyed with the opportunity to have homes of their own, thanks to the help of Habitat for Humanity.

Two of the new Bedford Street residents are best friends — Laura Smith and Erika Barrett. They are excited to soon be living so close to each other.

“She can’t get rid of me now,” Barrett said, and they both laughed.

Laura Smith previously owned a home in Florida, but she has been renting since she moved to Alpena in 2016.

“What it means to me, to have a house? Security,” she said, adding that when you are renting, you never know if your landlord will sell or if you will have to move out for reasons outside your control. Now, she will not only be building equity, but she will be in charge of making the payments and establishing her own security.

“As long as you make the payments, it’s your home,” Smith said.

She will be moving into a two-bedroom home on Bedford Street with a one-car garage.

“The one closet in the living room is twice as big as the only closet I have at my house,” she said of her current home that she rents. “There’s so much more storage. I’m so excited about that.”

She explained the process of applying for a Habitat home.

“We had to go through a lot of classes,” Smith said. “Financial classes. It really taught me a lot on the credit scores, and how to build your credit, and how to maintain it. And great things about budgeting and saving, so you don’t have to use the credit cards.”

She added, “I just made a payment on my credit card today, and I now officially have more in savings than I owe.”

She said it feels good to make progress like that.

“I can see the finish line,” Smith said. “And now I can have people over. My house right now is too small to have many people over.”

Erika Barrett is a hard-working single mother of three. She has never owned a home before. She and her children, Angel Barrett, 16, Mason Barrett, 13, and Mikey Barrett, 10, are anxiously awaiting move-in day.

“I’ve been actually working three years with Habitat, doing what they said I need to do,” Barrett said. “They laid it out for me. So I did what they told me to. They’ve been wonderful.”

The Barrett family is moving into a three-bedroom Habitat home with a one-car garage.

“It means everything,” Barrett said. “Having that security of having a roof over your head, and just coming home. That feeling of ‘this is home.'”

They’ve been renting, and Barrett wanted to start building equity and provide security for her children.

“Habitat has been amazing,” she said, adding that Jennifer Nestell, Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan homeownership program coordinator, really helped her throughout the process. “Jen has listened to me ramble numerous times, and freak out. She’s amazing. You can tell it’s not just a job for her. She’s in it with her heart.”

She has been working two full-time jobs, about 70 hours a week.

“I’m very excited for the house, because then Mom can actually be home more than she is now, and actually calm down with the working,” Angel Barrett said.

“Mom is a workaholic,” Mason Barrett said.

David Hux, wife Grace Hux, and children, Alexis Hux, 13, and Jacob Hux, 10, are looking forward to owning their first home.

“For me, it’s a relief, because when I pass away, I can’t leave an apartment to my family and know they’re taken care of, but with a house, I can feel a little bit more secure for them,” David Hux said.

“We’re excited,” Grace Hux said. “We’re already packed.”

The Hux family has been in the process of preparing for homeownership for about three years. They are glad their new Bedford Street home is so close to Ella White Elementary School.

“The kids already went to school at Ella White, so this is the perfect location for us,” Grace Hux said.

They are grateful to Habitat for guiding them through the process every step of the way.

“They made it actually affordable for us,” David Hux said. “I don’t know how else we could have done it without them.”

They are moving into a three-bedroom home with a one-car garage.

“What’s remarkable about this is the hard work that these individuals and families put in,” said Ted Fines, Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan executive director. “It really tugs your heart, the hard work that they put in. And they can’t do this by themselves. They need us. We need the Jack Bergmans, we need the state, we need the federal government to understand that these are hard-working Americans, and they deserve a stable and safe home.”

Bergman came to tour the homes and congratulate the soon-to-be homeowners.

“The key phrase here is ‘hard-working Americans’ who are willing to put in more than a day’s work to achieve what you’re trying to achieve,” Bergman said. “Why wouldn’t we want to help?”

Bergman explained his role in visiting the Northeast Michigan residents.

“This was a chance now for me to see physically, touch, talk to families who are beneficiaries of this kind of work,” Bergman said. “Any time we’re doing something like this, I look at, OK, is there a role for the federal government? If so, what is it? … But the partnership here at the federal level, the state level, the local level, is what provides this kind of opportunity.”

He added, “We’re helping them fill their bucket, and I guarantee they’re the kind of people that will in turn take from their bucket to help others.”

Bergman said he will take what he learns up here back to Washington, D.C. to educate his colleagues on the progress being made in Northeast Michigan.

“It’s one thing to have, you hear the term, ‘affordable housing,’ but if it’s not attainable, what good is the affordability? We have to have attainable housing,” Bergman said.

Reach News Community Editor Darby Hinkley at 989-358-5691 or dhinkley@TheAlpenaNews.com.