Dream realized: First family moves into new Bonita Habitat home

Luis Landa and his two teenage sons lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Bonita Springs that they rented along with another family. That meant the single father had to share a bedroom with his boys. Despite working hard at two jobs, Landa didn’t think he’d ever have a place of his own.

That all changed on June 17 when the Landa’s were presented the key to their new three-bedroom, two-bathroom, single family home in Bonita Springs. Their dream came true due to a partnership between Habitat for Humanity and several upscale gated communities in the area.

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Habitat just revealed this first of 14 planned homes in a community in the Rosemary Park area that they are calling Partnership Place. What makes this Habitat project extra special is that Bonita Bay, Pelican Landing and the Colony and the Shadow Wood Charitable Foundation raised the money for these homes and sent volunteers to build help the houses.

“Right now, I feel very excited,” Landa said. “This is a blessing for myself and my children. I have been working hard to have this dream come true. Finally, my dream is coming true. I want to thank everybody who made this possible.”

Bonita Bay raised the money and sent volunteers to build three homes, Pelican Landing and the Colony did one and so did Shadow Wood. Bentley Village funded the sixth house but used volunteers from Shadow Wood for building. These first six homes will all be filled within the next few weeks. The Landas are the first to move in.

To qualify Landa had to put in 300 hours of volunteer time building the home. He also had to attend workshops on home maintenance and budgeting. Habitat recipients get their home with no down payment; no interest and they pay only 30 percent of their income for their mortgage.

“You deserve it,” Rachel West, director of donor relations for Habitat, told Landa. “You worked very hard.”

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West said home recipients like Landa work diligently, but still find buying a home through a bank impossible. While the house is not free, the mortgage and the terms of buying are doable for Landa and the other families that will soon be his neighbors.

“He had a great need,” said Igdalia Acevedo, director of family support for Habitat. “He shares one bedroom with his kids, and he needed two jobs to afford that.”

It is stories like this that sparked people from the local communities to help create Partnership Place.

“I had a family that didn’t have a lot when I was young, and I just try to give back,” said Pat Oetting, a resident of Bonita Bay who donated money and time to the project.

“We are really excited about it,” added Bonita Bay resident, Nancy Thomas who oversees the fundraising in her community. “We have a housing crisis because people who are hardworking, and people we need in our society to work, are moving out of Southwest Florida because they just can’t afford to live here. And it is very sad to hear these stories. We do it out of a sense that we can do this and we should do this. You have to help people that are more than willing to help themselves like Luis. We have so many people in Bonita Bay that really believe in Habitat.”

 Pat Douglas, a resident of Shadow Wood, spent two, eight-hour days a week building the Habitat homes in Partnership Place. He led the team of 25 volunteers from his community.

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“We all are retired and love doing this and giving back a little bit,” Douglas began. “We all believe Habitat is a great cause and we have a lot of fun doing it. When I retired, I wanted to give back and use some of my talents to help. I had some friends that were doing this, and I jumped in headfirst and before you know it, I am the lead for our efforts.”

Like most of the volunteers, Douglas was not in the construction industry. Volunteers are taught the skills they need by experts, who also oversee the work.

“I would say 90 percent of the volunteers were not in the construction industry,” Douglas said. “But if someone has an interest, we do our best to train them and make them productive.”

Greg DiMarco, a resident of Pelican Landing, is another volunteer. His community has supported Habitat for the 20 years now, contributing to 25 homes during the past two decades.

“We are very much financial supporters and hammer and nails supporters,” DiMarco said. “This year we raised a lot of money here, more money than we every raised. The Habitat mission of putting a roof over someone’s head is something that resonates with my wife and me,”

This year residents at Pelican Landing and The Colony set a record-breaking fundraising goal, giving $382,824 to Habitat.  Residents at Shadow Wood formed a charitable foundation to donate to local nonprofits, including Habitat. So far this year, they gave $315,000 toward Habitat’s affordable housing program. Each of Bonita Bay’s 63 communities participates in fundraising for Habitat and this year have donated $537,982.

The houses in Partnership Place range in size from 1,250 to 1,500 square feet and have either three or four bedrooms and two bathrooms. On Friday, Jayden and Ethan Landa, ages 14 and 13, got their first glimpse of their new three-bedroom home. They picked out their rooms and began making plans.

“I want to paint it green,” Jayden began. “My bed will go there and I will have a shelf with a TV and I will put music posters here on the wall.”

Ethan wants his room to be white and is still thinking about other décor. Their father says he is looking forward to a new bed, a mirror and a corner shelf in bedroom. Luis Landa does irrigation maintenance at Bonita Bay full time and works part time for Leoni’s Pizza. For the past six months, he’s also been working on building his new home. It was a lot of work, but now when work is done for the day, he has a house to go home to and a room of his own and that makes his extremely happy.

“This is my dream,” he said. “I didn’t know if it would happen, but finally my dream is coming true. Thank you very much.”