Single mother’s dream comes true with help from Habitat for Humanity

BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — The Blount County Habitat for Humanity is making a single mother’s dream come true through building her future home.

“This has always been a dream to be a homeowner,” said the future homeowner, Kalynn Kirchoff.

As part of their 2024 women’s build, Habitat for Humanity hopes to empower women by inviting them to build homes and provide people, like Kirchoff, a safe place to land. Kirchoff joined volunteers as they worked on building her future home.

“I used an electric saw for the first time the other day and carried some lumber and then I’ve been painting a foundation,” she said.

With a similar goal of making homeownership attainable for everyone, Clayton Homes partnered with Habitat for Humanity to help fund the project and bring volunteers to the build sites.

“It’s great to see everybody come together and create a community,” said Clayton Homes’s social responsibility program manager, Ted Rutland.

According to Rutland, they have volunteered for and partnered with Blount County Habitat for Humanity since 2022.

“It creates a safe place to be, it creates stability, it creates financial success for families, and we know it builds generational wealth,” he said, “they’re safe and secure right here and they can grow and really plant roots.”

After being diagnosed with stage-three Melanoma Cancer, Kirchoff had to put her dreams of owning a home on hold, until recently.

“I feel like I accomplished something for my son and I,” she said, “it’s hard to do it, especially being a single parent full time.”

She said that if it wasn’t for this program, she would not have been able to afford a house in her community, and now she can create a safe place for her son to grow up.

“It’s very important to me to have a home, especially for my son, I want a stable home, that you know it’s his home, and our home together, that we can share together. It’s not been so easy you know the past couple of years, but I feel like, you know, there’s been a few bumps in the road but it’s getting better,” said Kirchoff.

Kirchoff’s home is one of two currently being built in a new Habitat for Humanity neighborhood in Blount County, creating more opportunities for affordable housing in the area.

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