Looking for a new beginning, Cheyenne moved her family to Canyon Lake in 2013 after falling in love with the hill county. Cheyenne is a single mother to four children: Naomi, Trey, Zavyen, and Perron. She was familiar with the program due to her involvement with other community action partnerships, and after seeing an article in the Herald Zeitung about a Habitat homeowner. She wasted no time reaching out for the opportunity to build a home for her own family. Cheyenne looks forward to providing her family with a strong foundation that promotes the stability and security that renting has not provided them for the last several years. 

Previously, one of the apartments her family called home was sold to new owners who served them an eviction notice. She couldn’t believe the situation, “We had 30 days to move out, 30 days!” Cheyenne and her family worry that any place they stay will be able to force them to move with little notice. 

Cheyenne faced another unsafe situation when she came home to find her bedroom window opened with the screen removed. “At the time it was just me and my kids.” Cheyenne enrolled in a home security company to provide security measures for the safety of her and her children, but her family is still distressed from the circumstances. The neighborhood where Cheyenne lived featured an abandoned lot nearby that trespassers frequented. Another concern for Cheyenne is her father’s well-being. 

Cheyenne’s father moved in with her family after he suffered a head injury at work and lost his home to a fire. Shortly after the head injury, her father was severely injured in a motorcycle accident. Without an entrance ramp, helping her father get to the doctor posed a risk. Cheyenne explained, “I would have to take him, with his wheelchair, […] I would try to turn him and carefully take him backward down the steps.” Now on the road to recovery, Cheyenne explained, “He does what he can to help around the home, but it’s difficult for him.”

When the owner of their current residence hired a management company to help run the property, Cheyenne hoped the upkeep of maintenance on the home would be addressed. However, the company is slow to respond to Cheyenne when repairs are needed, “Bathtub leaking, general repairs, I’ve found myself having to do some of that.” The struggle increased when the family went days without power in half their home. Cheyenne works from home which was a challenge because of the outage, “half the power went out. I had been trying to get a hold of the property management […] I couldn’t get through to the.” Luckily, the property owner visited the lot next door and Cheyenne’s father was able to talk with him. “[The property owner] came over, he took a look at it himself and then contacted a company to come out.”

Cheyenne and her family first moved to the hill country in hopes of a new beginning in our community. She believes that community is a support system, a network of people coming together to look after each other. Working towards a Habitat home, Cheyenne looks forward to empowering herself as a homeowner and providing her family a home that is theirs. “I want my kids to look back and see that no matter what, I never gave up doing whatever I could to provide.” Cheyenne envisions being able to make homeowner decisions that she cannot do while renting such as painting, decorating, and growing fruits and vegetables; decisions that are hers to choose from the power of homeownership.