Help Start Construction on Simple, Decent Housing

LaTangie was only 16 years old when her mother had to sell their family’s house in northeast Portland. Her life, and her family, were never the same after that. 

“I don’t remember where we all went,” she recalled, thinking back to those days decades ago when she and her three brothers lost their home and moved apart. “We all were scattered.”  

Years passed, and LaTangie had three children of her own, went to college, and received degrees in special education and early education. For 21 years, she’s worked as an education assistant at the Reynolds School District. It is a career she loves, working with children, but starting out in entry level positions didn’t pay enough to cover housing costs for herself and her two youngest children. By 2011, she was just barely getting by, juggling credit cards to pay bills.  

She wanted her boys to have what she had in her early youth. A stable home, close to school, in a good community, with a park nearby where her sons, Jeremy and Kwaku, could play basketball. It was a dream compared to where they were living at the time: sharing a house with another family, living out of one bedroom, and keeping their personal belongings in their car. In such a crowded living environment, that car became LaTangie’s refuge, a quiet place, and the only place she could call her own. 

“I used to sit in my car after work, and I would just sit there and cry, thinking I wish I had a house. I wish I had somewhere to go,” she said. “That was my safe place. That car was mine. It didn’t belong to anybody else. I didn’t have to share it.” 

Habitat for Humanity provided the family a pathway to their own home in southeast Portland. 

Partnering with Habitat meant contributing time to the building of the home, and LaTangie remembers some good times working on her home, despite some challenging days. She worked every Saturday, she said, and documented her shifts in a coupon book. She has held on to the book as a fond keepsake to remember that transformative time in her life. 

“I remember having 15, 20 people from my staff on one Saturday — they all came to help me. They were so happy to give back, and we had us a big old party!” she said. “And then I had one co-worker who worked with me every other Saturday.” 

She still remembers the day she moved into her Habitat home with her family. It was April, and the home smelled brand new. 

“It was exciting! It was ours!” she said. They had two bathrooms, two bedrooms, and a big kitchen. “We loved our front porch. It’s big. We felt stable, and we could take our stuff out of the car.” 

Her sons, ages 12 and 20 when they moved in, made friends with the other kids in the community. They were in the Reynolds School District, where her youngest son was already going to school, and she was close to her work. And there was even a park to play basketball nearby. 

“And the house still smells brand new,” LaTangie said. 

Her sons have grown up and moved out, but several years ago her daughter, the oldest of the LaTangie’s three children, moved in along with LaTangie’s grandchildren. They had been struggling to pay rent, she said, and LaTangie’s home provided the stability they needed.  

“I said, ‘you guys will not suffer,’” she said. “And they’re happy, they’re comfortable, they don’t struggle.” 

LaTangie says she’s thankful for her home. “That’s one thing I’ll never let go in my heart.”  

“If I didn’t have this house and I had to pay regular rent, it wouldn’t happen,” she said. “There would be no food, no nothing, because everything is so expensive out here in the real world. It’s a blessing to have this house because the mortgage is affordable.” 

That mortgage is just 2 years away from being paid off, and LaTangie can’t wait. When that day comes, she’s not sure what she will do, but for the time being, the house is there for her children, and her children’s children.  

“It’s their house, no matter what,” she said. “And if something would happen to me, they can come home. They all still have their keys.”