The people are what matters in self-help housing,
you know. They're trying to build a house
and have a place to raise their families and
an affordable place in Henderson County is
not easy to come by. And so, you know, I'm glad that we're able to make that happen for people, you know,
and allow families to have safe, affordable
housing to live in this beautiful area.
Henderson Country and Hendersonville is a
place that attracts people from all over the
country. They want to live here. It's a beautiful
place to live and I think that when they drive
through this town, most every neighborhood
around here feels like it's a good, safe place
to live.
When we started the program here in Henderson
County, this area was unique in that the developers
here wanted to focus on higher end homes.
We could not really find anyone who was willing
to build affordable housing and the affordable
housing stock was diminishing.
If you were looking to own a home in Henderson
County, I can't think of a better starting
point than the Self-Help Housing Program.
And not just because of the house that you
get but because of the community building
skills that you get from working in a group
setting and getting to know neighbors and
learning a little bit about construction and
just how the whole process works. I don't
see there being any better option for someone
who's starting out.
It's very important. I mean it's... You know,
most people who own their houses, there's
no way they could have done it without this
program. We built a house one time for a girl
who works at McDonald's at the drive-through
window. I mean, you know, it's... I don't
know anything other way she could have ever
had a home, especially a new home.
I actually built a house through the Self-Help
program twelve years ago. My wife and I built
a home and then once we had gone through the
process, I kind of was looking for a change
in career and they were looking for another
supervisor and so I came on as a supervisor
at that time and I've been with them ever
since. It's kind of important to have a stable
place to live that you can call your own,
that you don't have to bounce around and you
can kind of become accustomed and comfortable
with and knowing your neighbors and all that
stuff. I know that with my house, I don't
have any plans of moving. Unless it gets too
small, which, you know, when it does I'll
probably add on because literally, I'm totally
happy where I'm at. I'm totally happy with
that house, I love my neighbors, you know.
It's a comfort thing, you know.
I don't feel like I'm being pressured to have
to find something else all the time. It's
just one less thing that you have to stress
about because raising kids and just day to
day life. There's tons of stress and it's
just nice to know that the house is not one
of those stresses.
Mike and Destiny. There were multiple things
that had to fall in place, and they actually
did. You know, securing income, and time and
employment.
Jairo: I'm going to say all this stuff today,
before the end of the day, and see if they
make a decision before that.
Okay.
Jairo: They have not said no.
Destiny: Right.
Jairo: Most of the time when they're going
to deny someone, as soon as they get the reports
back they say no, I'm sorry, we can't approve
you at this time. Right now what they're doing
to you and some other people is getting a
little more detail.
From the time we actually started working
with Mike and Destiny, we figured out that
it wouldn't work in a specific way. All the
things had to be figured out. So the need
of more income, to show more income, they need
to have in the time and the employment. So
like, some families have to go and find a
part-time job to boost up their earnings for,
you know, the period required by the financial
institution to be able to count that as income. In Destiny
and Mike's case, I believe she had to go work
a second job because he was in college.
I knew it would be hard for me to pick up
that second job. I mean, especially with him
at school and the kids. We actually had to
go and try to find daycare and things like that. You know,
that was a bump because it was hard to get
the girls into daycare. I mean it really
was because nobody had openings and to place
two kids, it was pretty difficult but we did
it and I'm just pretty much working, working,
working. I mean, yesterday I worked from... pretty
much from ten until midnight. I opened at
Sam's and closed at Sam's, and then closed
at McDonald's. So, I mean it was a long workday
but you know, it's do-able. It really is.
I mean, if you want it bad enough, you'll
do it.
When we got married, we actually got married
on Halloween and we were wanting to do a Batman
themed, but we just couldn't find a good costume
so we decided whenever we redo our vows we're
going to do Batman themed.
Mike: It's the only thing I've ever really been
drawn to and once I saw the Batman character,
that's where I got hooked at.
I had a friend of mine who worked at the movie
theater, so he got me one of the really big
Batman posters when the movie was just coming
out.
That's what I like about him, I mean, you're
still a good guy but you can kick some ass at the same time.
Jairo: Basically that's a process, so we're still not out of the woods so to speak, alright?
We still have a few steps to go through.
Jenny: Keep going up.
Jairo: Keep going up.
When Jenny came in, she came and said 'Well,
this is my dream, but I don't know that I
can accomplish it.' She didn't think it could
happen. We spent the first time if I remember correctly probably close
to an hour talking. That to me is a key. It's
not so much about numbers because I could
go there and push people in, try to make them
believe it's going to be good, but if I'm
not sure that they're going to be successful,
I will say you're not ready today. Let's work
a little longer. Let's work a little more.
That's what Jenny's case was. I don't know if this is good for me.
His momma couldn't take care of him. She struggled with all the children she had, so he came
to live with me and then... Well, he came
to live with his daddy and then his daddy
couldn't take care of him either so he came
to live with Grandma. He said he didn't want
to go back, he wanted to stay with Grandma.
 
I had to make a goal for a head-start and
this year, for my grandson, I went ahead and
said I wanted to own a home in the next five
years. So she gave me Jairo's name and number
and she told me to contact him, that they
were looking for clients to do it. So we did
it, we paid off $2,000 in two months. I did
extra work because I own my own business,
a cleaning service, and I worked extra hours.
My sister helped and we recycled a lot of
scrap metal and stuff. We gathered up money
to pay the bills to get it done, and we did
it. So here we are! Waiting, waiting now.
Our papers are at the loan thing now so we're
waiting.
It's for my grandson. His mother and father
were both meth-heads and when I got him...
I'm going to cry. When I got him, he was almost
two and he weighed sixteen pounds. He had
no muscles. None. He couldn't walk, he couldn't talk, he literally was about dead.
I like this one. But we've got to get it through first.
Your snowman picture! Don't throw the birdflower. He drew a little bird!
Their case was a little funny because I was looking through old files the other day and
they had actually applied and sent in an application
a year before I started really talking
to them. I found an application from 2011.
Jeremy: How many have submitted applications?
Jairo: About six or seven.
Jeremy: Okay.
Jairo: But not everybody has been approved.
People have said you know what, everything
looks good, great, but you just paid something
this month. You have to wait six months and
on the seventh month we give you back.
I don't know, I think it was hard to read
at the beginning.
Jeremy: Yeah but hundreds of dollars on a
thirty year loan on a hundred and forty thousand
dollar house is a drop in the bucket.
Jairo: It is, but again...
When I met Jeremy he was kind of hard for
me to read because I knew she was really into
it. She was the one getting the information,
she came several times and asked me questions,
called me back, what do mean by this and that... And
then when she sold him to the idea, he came
and I said to her, yeah, we can do this and
you know, it's your husband and he needs to
be on the application and all that. I need
to meet with him. Let's not continue this
process until I meet him.
Jeremy: This one here would be fine there
for the rest of her life. She can move in
there and never move out whereas ten or fifteen
years down the road, I want something bigger.
I don't want neighbors.
Crystal: See, I don't want something bigger
because you don't clean it.
Jeremy: Not huge, I'm not talking about a
two thousand square foot house-
Crystal: Yeah, you are.
Jeremy: No!
He came and we talked and he kind of understood
the program, but I think in the beginning
he was still a little apprehensive of the
program. But now I think he has changed.
Jeremy: I'm not complacent with my apartment.
I probably will not be complacent with the
house I'm building. It's not my dream house.
I don't plan to be there forever, but in life
you can't go from where I'm at to where I
want to be in a single step. It's just not...Unless
I win the lottery, in which case that would
be great and I could but I can't get there,
from here to there in any time. I've probably
got fifteen or twenty years before I'm in
a place in life where I'm stable enough, I've
been vetted in my job and making enough money
to be able to do that so the home is a great
stepping stone for me.
Jairo: As soon as you get your approval letter,
you put the deposit, your hundred dollar deposit,
you pick your lot, and we put sold on it.
Then you pick your house and all that, and then we starting getting the document process ready.
Crystal: It's just been... Everything is backwards
for us.
Jeremy: We got married at the jail house in
front of the judge magistrate at like eight p.m.
Crystal: I was highly medicated after my surgery.
Jeremy: She was drugged pretty good. As far as the status change of being married, we
were married before that.
Crystal: And his mom paid for our wedding.
Jeremy: Yeah, my mom paid for our wedding in front of the judge. There was bullet proof
glass between us and the judge magistrate.
It was great. Very, very, very white trash wedding by the way.
 
You need that little push, so that's what I like to do. So that's what I do with my
families here and I call them my families
for the time that they're building and trying
to get into this because they just need a
little push. They have it within them to do
it, it's just that they don't know. It's never
me, it's never what I do. I just talk and
say hey, you've got to do this, this, and that and
let's see if we can make it work and then
I put it together or we put it together. And
then it goes, or if it doesn't at that time
we try again, and we tweak it and make it happen.
...the lasting process that we are expecting
right now, so we still have to wait at least
from the time you get approved about three
weeks to get the appraisal and about a week
to do the commitment and about two weeks after
that to do the closing. So when you do the
math, about a month and a half to two months
to get the closing done. When the construction
will begin, that is not for sure yet.
Jairo: Now I need you to read what is inside
of that envelope and tell me what you think.
Jeremy: That's awesome.
Crystal: Wow, we got approved, huh?
Jairo: You did, congradulations.
Crystal: Oh, that's amazing!
Jeremy: Sweet.
Crystal: So I guess we can put our money down.
Jeremy: Go to the bank as soon as you drop
me off.
Crystal: Do you take cash?
Jairo: We take cash.
Crystal: Alright! See, I got this.
Jeremy: She was ready. That's awesome.
Jenny: Hey, Jairo, how are you? Okay, I'm
listening.
I know you can do it. I mean, you did amazing
things in six to eight months. Just little
things, I know you're not going to have any
problems.
Jairo: Here's the thing they have requested,
so I need you guys to read it and tell me
what you think.
Destiny: Oh, sweetie. I was like, wait, what? Yay!
Jairo: Congratulations, now you can pick your lot and your house.
Jeremy: Not anxious at all. I am not a manual
labor kind of guy unless it's on my car, so
I'm not looking forward to this at all.
Crystal: I'm kind of looking forward to it.
I want a yard. I want more space. I'm kind
of interested to see how the whole thing comes
together.
Jeremy: The house is going to be great, the
yard's going to be great, where's it's going
to be is going to be great because I got the
lot I wanted, but I'm not looking forward
to slinging a hammer for seven months.
Crystal: He's just lazy. I think he'll be
fine. Yeah. You'll be fine.
Jeremy: Well I have to be. So I've got no
choice in the matter.
Jeremy: That's not water dripping. It's nasty. I don't sweat anywhere else, other than my
head. That is sweat. It's been doing that-
look, look, look, look. It is wet. There's
not a piece of this hat that ain't soaked.
Destiny: They need smell-ivision right now.
Jeremy: You know what'll happen is on the
way home this will dry and you'll get the
little salt bands, the little white crust
marks all over it. It's great. I've always
been a head sweater, that's why I have to have a hat.
I think about all of us wanted to kill Jeremy.
Like, I mean, seriously, like we threatened
to bring duck tape because he... he knows
a little bit more about the process than we
did. You know, we were all so tired because
that's when I was working, you know? The two
jobs and he would just talk and talk and talk
and we'd just be like 'Jeremy, just shut up,
we want to go home.'
Jeremy: Fat and out of shape. Fat and out
of shape.
I didn't get to see a lot of Crystal at first.
I saw, well... of course, Jeremy's there so
he kind of steals the show. It's kind of funny
how, gosh, they go back and forth with each
other. I mean, it is hilarious. They would
just go like '[mocking noises]' and you're
just like, 'How are they a couple?' Because
they do, they just like, bite each other's heads off.
Crystal: Oh, he's never prepared. But, yeah.
Jeremy: What? Whatever.
Crystal: You're the least prepared person
ever. What are you doing?
Jeremy: I'm playing with my new ladder.
Crystal: Well I'm not going to know how to
operate that thing.
Jeremy: You push and turn, and then it swings
out. Push and turn and it swings out.
Crystal: Sounds easy enough.
It's... It's so funny. But, you know, at the
beginning I just... I don't know how we made
it through Jeremy but I guess we just kind
of grew to love him because we can tolerate
him now. But we hand out now, pretty often.
But they're...they're so entertaining to watch.
I don't know.
Jeremy: No street lights, no city lights.
You're going to be able to see the stars.
Crystal: Holy crap.
Jeremy: I know!
Crystal: Done forgot what stars look like.
Destiny: She's like, yeah!
Gary: That's the intelligent part.                                            Jeremy: Lasers go pew-pew!
Crystal: Yeah, see? It's hard to get close with it.
Destiny: Well see, I did all the hard work for you.
Jeremy: I do measure and hand TV's for a living.
A lot of this ain't much different from your
normal everyday making sure something's level,
putting the screws on kind of work, so. It
ain't too terribly different from the stuff I've done.
That's not level though.
Destiny: Look, I'm still red. I'm still burnt.
I'm peeling. Like, that's not even that bad.
This is like, what, almost two weeks later?
Jeremy: A week and a half?
Destiny: A week and a half later?
Jeremy: Crystal was red in the face like a
cooked lobster.
Destiny: Yep, we were lobsters. Mike kept
calling me his little lobster. It was bad.
Jeremy: My ears got burnt and they peeled.
Destiny: Oh, my face was burnt. It looked
about like his hat color. That's how red it
was. To all future builders.
Jeremy: Of course, she had pants on and decided
it was a good idea to roll her pants up because
she was hot. And her legs were red.
Destiny: It was! It was so hot.
Jeremy: We should get a little break here,
in the gap, and then it'll rain all day for
the rest of it.
Crystal: Oh boy.
Jeremy: It's not moving very fast. I mean,
if it sits here, it's going to rain all damn day.
According to the weather report, it's going
to get worse. We'll hang around and see. We get a chance, fifteen minutes, we're going
to go work for fifteen minutes but other than
that, nothing we can do.
Jeremy: I'm going to break my arm. I work
hard!
Gary: Alright, go with it.
Destiny: It's wet and it's cold.
Crystal: I help where I can and do what I
can. Usually it's Destiny and I
doing the clean up crew. Everybody else is
doing the rest of the stuff. So it works.
Some of the stuff was harder for me to do
and especially, like, when it came to power
tools, like, just let the guys have the power
tools. We just kind of were like, alright,
we'll go sweep. I don't know.
Gary: No, no, no, no. But that's okay! We can use those in here too. They're a lot sharper.
Who told you to do this? Weren't they smart
enough to do it?
Sweat equity is when somebody comes out and
they work on their home for six to nine months
and the house appraises for approximately
$185 and they pay &155, $160. The difference
between those two numbers is the sweat equity
that they earn.
Destiny: Do I have to sign them pretty or
can I just sign them scribble like I do?
Jeremy: They're going to get scribble from
me regardless.
Destiny: Well Jairo fussed at me because on
my other paper, he's like 'you have to sign
it like your driver's license.' Now I just
scribble.
Jeremy: Oh my God. I think my driver's license
looks like crap, too.
Sean: So, this one's Pro-Build. If you go
through the stack, there'll be an invoice
from Pro-Build, so that's what you're paying
for. It's basically your re-bar and all that stuff.
There'll be quite a bit
from there because we get some lumber and blah-blah-blah.
Destiny: So, cut it on this side of the line, right?
Destiny: What color do you want to paint it? You want pink?  Daughter: I want purple!  Destiny:  You want purple? How did I know y'all wouldn't agree.
Daughter: Mommy, we can pick all the colors! Destiny: We could pick all the colors?
Daughter: Mommy, I want pink right here and orange and green and purple. The purple's going to be right here.
Destiny: Just put them next to our sign. Okay, that'll work. It's okay, you can leave them on top of it.
Daughter: I don't want nobody to take them.
Mike: Nobody'll take them.
Destiny: Daddy gave mommy his cold. Y'all
want to go get pancakes?
Destiny: I ran over a mailbox.
Pull forward!
So like, I get down to the end and so I like
stop and it just felt like everything shifted
in the back of the truck and apparently that
was me hitting the mailbox. I didn't know.
I go back up there and they're like, Sean's
like, 'You could have stopped before you hit
her mailbox.' And I was like, 'I hit her mailbox?' I was like, 'what?' And it just go happens, we look down
there and she's home and she's going to check
her mail. And so I look and it just looks
like the mailbox was angled just a tiny bit
and I was like, 'Oh, good, it's fine.' She
like turns it, and it just shatters in her
hands. Every which way it could go, it just
shatters onto the ground and I was like, 'Crap.'
And I was like, 'What do I do?' We're all
up there like, about peeing ourselves laughing
so hard. I mean, it was great. It just looked
like a practical joke. It just looked like
it exploded and I was like, 'What do I do?'
and he went 'You better go talk to her.'
Alright. I'm telling you, some of this stuff
gets heavy and you'll laugh at us trying to
throw it in here. One day we just gave up
and we just set it all along here and made
the guys come up here. We were like, forget
it. It gets dirty.
Crystal: What I want to know, is that entertainment
center that we're getting, is it going in
here?
Destiny: I don't know. I don't know where
anything's going yet, honestly. We're going
to have that table and I was thinking about
putting the computer desk in here.
Gary: That board was from this piece right
over here.
Little late now, I think.
Gary: Let's see if it's too long... Not the
middle one, the middle one's short.
Nah, it's too short.
Okay, we'll have to get another board for that.
With hard work, we all can have nice things
and someday, when I'm dead and gone, it will
be his. It'll be between him and Joseph and
they can live there until they decide which
one's getting married and going on and then...
Mostly it's for Vance. To show him this is
what you can do and Joseph...Joseph knows.
Joseph's been around me for ten years and
he knows Momma's been a long ways. His daddy
died when he was ten months old in a car accident
and when he died, you kind of, or I went through
a major depression. Major depression. I was
suicidal, I was kind of just lazy, didn't
want to work or do nothing. Joseph, when I
seen his face all the time, it's just like,
it's time, Jenny, you've got to wake up. He's
what God gave you because I was like forty,
or thirty-nine. I was thirty-nine and God
gave me this baby and I was like, this is
why He gave it to you, to keep on going. So
that's why I wake up every morning now, because
I see them two little faces and the smiles
and the tears and the hard work. It is hard
work but it's well worth it. I've been living
in the same house now for eight years. The
house is full of mold and mildew, the septic
leaks under the house. I mean, you can literally
smell the septic coming up out of the bathroom
half the time. My son, which is ten, has asthma
problems now because of the mold and he's
taking shots every week for allergies and
mold and all this other stuff that he's allergic
to now. If I move my stuff out of the house,
it's going to fall. I know it is.
Jairo: Okay, so here's a couple things that
you...that they're asking and they're telling
you there so read that and tell me what you
think.
So that's the amount they're going to give
me. That's enough for what I want?
Jairo: So that's what it is, congratulations.
Thank you. I knew it had to be something because
you called with the bad news. I was going
to say forget it, I'm going to go double-wide
now. I was. Thank you, thank you.
Jairo: You did a lot of hard work
You did the hard work!
Jairo: No, you did. I just told you things
that you might be able to do.
Jenny: You know what he just sold you? Your house. Right here, look. He's the one that asks all the time.
You're going to build that house. He's going to build it for you.
Vance: We're going to get that house?
Jenny: That house, right there.
It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do
it.
Jenny is a very amazing lady. She has impressed
a lot in my mind and in my memories. I think
this is one of the few clients that will always
stay in my head. I've seen pretty amazing
things that she has accomplished to be able
to make it happen. And actually, she was denied
the first time and yes she was upset, she was
sad, but she was like 'That's not going to
keep me down. What do I need to do?' She actually
said 'But what do I need to do? This is not
going to keep me down. I'm going to make
it happen and I'm going to make it happen.'
And she did. She can probably explain exactly
the things that she did or she didn't do but
she impressed so much on me because of what
she accomplished and she's one of those people
that I was saying, you know, don't give me
a handshake. You give a hug because, I mean, you're part of me and my family.
You know, Mike and Destiny, it was kind of
a glimmer of hope. With their story coming
up to building this house and the journey
that they had to take to obtain it. I think
that that was nice. You could definitely see
some weight light off of their shoulders.
You know, finally, we're in a stable home
where, you know, we know our kids can grow
up happily. You know, that was the biggest
change. It's always nice to see the people
at the end because I know, gosh, when I built
for fourteen months, it wore on me and my
wife and I mean, it's just stressful. You
go to work everyday, okay, then you get off
work, and then you go to the job-site and
you work some more. It's a pretty long process
and you're dealing with people who are going
to be your neighbors. Sometimes you get along
with them, sometimes you don't, you know,
but you have to be there. Once you get to
the end of the process and you move into your
house, most of that stuff just goes away.
You know, it's like, I remember standing on
my front porch and just looking out and being
like, 'Man.' You know, it's such a feeling
of accomplishment because you know that you
had a huge role in getting that house. You
were out there and working fifteen hours a
week for some, in my case, it was fourteen
months of my life going out there. It's just
a great feeling to know that you worked so
hard and now you see the fruits of your labor.
You know, I saw that reaction in Mike and
Destiny. And I actually saw that reaction
in Jeremy. I know going into it he was always
looking to the future and looking for bigger
and better things and this is a stepping stone
to get where I want to be, but, you know,
there's a little bit of comfort there now.
I think that stereotypically, a program like
this is not somebody's final destination but
it can be, you know, and it can be comfortably.
So yeah, I think that Jeremy was very happy
with the end result and you know, I knew he
was going to be hard to please, but I think
that we actually did it.
I have learned things and I've learned things
about myself, so definitely. It's hard to
quantify some of it, but I do feel better
for doing it. For doing the whole process.
If you go back and look at some of the previous
interviews I've done, you know, I'm fat, lazy,
and don't want to manual labor but you know
what? Not been an issue. I come in here and
work my butt off, sweating hard and getting
stuff done. So you know, it's all good.
That's just one of the costs, you know? When
you're broke, you're broke, you know. That's
why this house is so good, because we're actually
getting a house cheaper than renting. It's
like we've had a rent increase at our apartment
since we started the building of the house
here and it's going to make the cost- if we
weren't living here, we'd probably have to
move out of the apartments because of the
rent increase. It's going to be cheaper to
live here than to live in the apartments.
And we're going to own it.
I think that the growth and change that people
experience does stay with them. Even if a
structure doesn't. I think that is something
that they can take with them into the rest
of their lives.
Jeremy: It's fun. Don't let Jairo scare you
into thinking it's a whole bunch of really
hard work and you're going to go home sore
and all that like he told us.
Destiny: Okay, the first day-
Jeremy: But, you know what, it's not that
bad. Get in here, get stuff done.
Destiny: Wear sunscreen.
Jeremy: Yeah, wear sunscreen if you're fair skinned.
I think they walk away, whether they realize
it or not, and I think a lot don't even realize
it, I think they walk away with a belief in
themselves and a sense of accomplishment,
and a realization that again, they can probably
take on the next greatest challenge.
