TRAVERSE CITY — The Habitat New Waves development will grow to six homeowner families on April 29 when it dedicates the two most recently completed homes.
According to an April 21 news release, the celebrations will be held at 5:30 p.m. on April 29 at 13910 S. Justice Way, Elmwood Twp, MI 49684, Northwest corner of Bugai Road (616) at E. Traverse Highway (M-72).
New homeowners Morgan and Noah grew up together in Ohio. Since they moved to Michigan more than two years ago, they have been looking for a permanent home they could afford. Despite both having good, steady, full-time jobs, their combined income was not enough for the elevated home values in our area.
Morgan began working on her sweat equity just a few days after their acceptance into the program. She completed her 200 hours helping out in the ReStore and working on both her own and others’ Habitat homes. Because Noah is skilled mechanically, he took to building Habitat homes like a seasoned carpenter, wearing a hard hat and setting roof trusses like he was born to do it.
They are excited to be a part of the New Waves community and continuing to make connections with their new neighbors, something they have missed living in less stable rental housing.
Morgan and Noah will be living next door to Cori and Jesse with their teen daughter, Makayla. With 18 years of sobriety between them, Cori and Jesse are both recovering from addictions. When Cori and Jesse first came into the Habitat program, Jesse had been diagnosed as slowly losing his vision and told he would eventually be entirely blind. The Habitat GTR board voted to waive Jesse’s sweat equity requirement because of his disability, but Jesse refused the offer. Jesse had nearly completed his sweat equity in February, when the Smokers learned from a specialist in Ann Arbor that, while his sight might remain impaired, he was not going blind.
Cori and Jesse Smoker started their Habitat sweat equity in August of 2024, expecting to become homeowners in December. Instead, they selflessly gave up their place in line to a different Habitat partner family who needed to sign a mortgage in 2024 for grant qualification reasons.
On April 29, Cori and Jesse will become homeowners, an opportunity they delayed to give one of their future neighbors the chance.
Join us for this wonderful double dedication to welcome Morgan and Noah, and Cori and Jesse as both families become Habitat Homeowners.
Although registration is not required to attend, it will help us plan the event. The registration link is: https://www.habitatgtr.org/dedication/
