{"id":21707,"date":"2020-05-29T12:40:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T19:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/habitatportlandmetro.org\/?p=21707"},"modified":"2020-05-29T12:40:41","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T19:40:41","slug":"constructing-a-new-life-ducs-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/habitatportlandregion.org\/constructing-a-new-life-ducs-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Constructing a New Life: Duc’s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/i>
\nBy Monicia Warner, Volunteer Storyteller<\/span><\/i>
\nDuc and his mom immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1996 when he was 8-years-old. They lived in a one-bedroom apartment in North Portland; Duc remembers close quarters and very little privacy in the small unit.<\/span>
\n\u201cHonestly, privacy was the challenging part of it,\u201d he said. \u201cI had to share the room with my mom and sometimes I had to live in the living room so that she could have the bedroom to herself for privacy.\u201d<\/span>
\nAt the time, his mom worked as a janitor and often found it difficult to make rent payments each month.<\/span>
\n\u201cThe rent was extremely high for my mom to afford,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was often a bit challenging because you have to worry about the monthly payment and also on occasion where she was having a hard time paying her rent.\u201d<\/span>
\nWhen they secured a Habitat home in 2005, in many ways, it was a lifeline. Duc was a junior in high school and still figuring out what career path he wanted to pursue. After putting in many hours of sweat equity on what was to become his family\u2019s new home, Duc developed a keen interest in construction as a career.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHabitat kind of opened a door for me in the construction field,\u201d he said. \u201cI started to do construction and wanted to learn the trades a bit more.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This interest led him to Boise State University where he earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in Construction Management. Recently, he\u2019s been able to apply his degree and all that he\u2019s learned to make improvements to his mom\u2019s home.<\/span>
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been working on my mom\u2019s house, changing the floor from carpet to hardwood floors, doing a little bathroom remodel, and I\u2019m working on changing laminate flooring to tile flooring,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to preserve that house as much as possible.\u201d<\/span>
\nAfter 15 years of being in their Habitat home, Duc and his mom still feel a lot of gratitude. Duc credits Habitat for helping him become active in the community through volunteer work, including a 7-year run as an interpreter for Habitat. He also noted a change in his mom\u2019s demeanor since she became a homeowner.\u2028<\/span>
\n\u201cShe is very happy that she has a house and she feels like it\u2019s something that she\u2019s proud of,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an asset to her;she takes full responsibility.\u201d<\/span>
\nOn top of providing affordable homes for those in need, Duc believes that Habitat is doing vital work to help people feel connected to the community.<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After helping to build his mom\u2019s home from the ground up, Duc turned the construction skills learned through Habitat into a career. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[23,26,24,37,42,64],"class_list":["post-21707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homeowner-story","category-news","tag-affordable-housing","tag-construction","tag-habitat-for-humanity","tag-habitat-for-humanity-portland-metro-east","tag-portland-housing","tag-portland-oregon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nConstructing a New Life: Duc's Story - Habitat Portland Region<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/habitatportlandregion.org\/constructing-a-new-life-ducs-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Constructing a New Life: Duc's Story - 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