Helping Baltimore residents build towards home ownership

A lot of us put our heart and soul into making our homes our own.

But these soon-to-be homeowners are putting in a lot more than that.

Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake and Bank of America volunteers worked on building five homes in South Baltimore's Curtis Bay neighborhood.

A few of those volunteers will soon own the homes they're building.

As part of the Habitat House program, they must work 250 "sweat equity" hours at build sites, but they'll tell you its worth the hard work.

"It's just a dream come true," said Kanieka Neal, "I've always wanted to be a homeowner. I have a little son who will be in here very soon, about to be two, so it's just a blessing to have like a new home that I can give him."

Habitat also works to get homeowners an affordable monthly mortgage, with payments cycled back into the community to help build more habitat homes.