{"id":22348,"date":"2020-08-31T10:03:02","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T17:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/habitatportlandmetro.org\/?p=22348"},"modified":"2020-08-31T10:03:02","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T17:03:02","slug":"building-resilience-bylindas-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/habitatportlandregion.org\/building-resilience-bylindas-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Resilience: Bylinda\u2019s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nWritten by Monicia Warner, Volunteer Storyteller<\/span><\/em>
\nAs a native Portlander, Bylinda has seen the city change in many ways, most notably in housing. She\u2019s grown up all over Portland, but fondly remembers family gatherings at her great-grandmother\u2019s house near NE Alberta and 24th Avenue. Her great-grandmother bought the house in 1906 for $5,600, during a time when the neighborhood was predominantly African American.<\/span>
\n\u201cHer house was actually the gathering spot for the whole family,\u201d Bylinda recalls. \u201cEverybody in the family, back and forth, you could always go stay at grandma\u2019s.\u201d<\/span>
\nBylinda\u2019s personal history with housing has been complex. <\/span>For safety reasons, she moved out of state for some time and lived in a domestic violence shelter.<\/span> She was homeless for a year and a half, living in a van with her fianc\u00e9, before she started renting from a coworker. When she initially applied to the Habitat Homeownership Program, her financial circumstances prevented her from qualifying.<\/span>
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t have the means to pay all my medical bills, because I had four kids, and so that debt kept me from being accepted into the program at that time,\u201d Bylinda recalls. \u201cI remember them saying, \u2018don\u2019t give up, it\u2019s not the end of the world, give it a little bit of time.\u2019\u201d<\/span>
\nShe continued to work to support her family, pay down debt, and rebuild her credit. Four years went by and Bylinda decided to submit another application to Habitat \u2013 this time, she was accepted.<\/span>
\n\u201cI applied and I remember getting the call when I was at work,\u201d Bylinda says. \u201cI screamed and jumped up and down.\u201d<\/span>
\nAfter putting in hundreds of hours of sweat equity alongside her fianc\u00e9, Bylinda and her family were able to move into their home in 2013. She finally had a home of her own; her daughter and grandson were glad to have separate rooms after sharing a space for so long.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad I was blessed to get a Habitat home and be able to help build it, and it\u2019s just always gonna be mine,\u201d Bylinda says.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shortly after moving in, Bylinda\u2019s fiance\u2019 died tragically just a few blocks from their home. His passing was difficult for the entire family, but was especially hard on their daughter, who struggled in school after his passing. Some of the only family photos that Bylinda has with her fiance\u2019 were taken by Habitat at a park near their home in celebration of their move-in.<\/span>
\n\u201cBecause of Habitat, I actually have pictures, our family pictures we took in the park,\u201d Bylinda says. \u201cThose are the only pictures I actually have with him, after everything.\u201d<\/span>
\nDespite the hardships she\u2019s faced, Bylinda is resilient. She now serves on the neighborhood Homeownership Association (HOA) and is a committed advocate for Habitat. She encourages people to apply for the program and not to give up, even if the timing isn\u2019t right at first.<\/span>
\n\u201cI\u2019ve told people, \u2018you definitely need to apply,\u2019\u201d Bylinda says. \u201cThe worst that they can tell you is \u2018no\u2019, but they also say \u2018don\u2019t give up\u2019. I didn\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/span>
\nToday, Bylinda shares her home in the Centennial neighborhood with her daughter, who is an artist and works at a youth home, and her grandson, who will start middle school next year. As a first-time homeowner, and one of the few homeowners in her family, she\u2019s proud to be an example to her kids and a support for other families in the neighborhood.<\/span>
\n\u201cI continue to be blessed day after day, month after month, year after year,\u201d Bylinda says. \u201cI\u2019ve suffered losses, but that\u2019s also part of life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the hardships she has faced, Habitat homeowner Bylinda has built a life full of blessings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homeowner-story","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBuilding Resilience: Bylinda\u2019s 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\/building-resilience-bylindas-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building Resilience: Bylinda\u2019s Story - 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