After years of working, saving and praying, Joey and Lucy Gutierrez and their three children will move into their new home Tuesday.
The home on North Lauderdale Avenue was dedicated Monday with the family, volunteers, Odessa Chamber of Commerce representatives, Mayor Javier Joven, council member Mark Matta and Midland Habitat for Humanity board members and staff in attendance.
Moriah Gutierrez, one of Joey and Lucy’s three children, offered a prayer.
The house is 1,200 square feet and has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, Chief of Staff Jeff Meyers said in an email.
The home was originally built almost 15 years ago as part of the Odessa Habitat for Humanity. The organization merged with Midland Habitat about seven years ago and the home was part of the package.
Meyers said it had been foreclosed on and the organization had a hard time finding a family to fit into it.
“We’re excited to get this one done and get the family moved in,” Meyers said.
The Gutierrez family has endured the struggles of living in the Permian Basin where rent took up most of their income.
Joey Gutierrez, who now works at American Industrial Machine, said his faith has always been strong.
“However, honestly I didn’t see this opportunity for me and my family to the far future,” Joey Gutierrez said.
The couple has three children, Noe, 12, Mariah, 10, and Zoe, 7. The children all said they were excited.
Noe said they were looking forward to getting a dog and Zoe wants a bunny.
Joey Gutierrez said they worked on the construction of several other houses in addition to their own, mainly in Midland.
“We felt like we were blessing people as we were being blessed,” he said.
Habitat uses a rigorous qualifying process that includes progress from the application through home ownership. Each participant contributes a minimum of 350 hours of “sweat equity” on the worksite and completes a home ownership education program.
Executive Director Joey Hopkins said the families are taught the course through Financial Peace University through Dave Ramsey, who has a syndicated radio show about financial health. They also learn about home maintenance.
Families also put down a down payment. Successful candidates are awarded a 0% interest mortgage, making home ownership a reality for some of the neediest families in the Permian Basin, a news release stated. The homes are sold at cost, Hopkins said.
He added that the program is not a hand out.
“Our partner families work their tail ends off for this opportunity,” Hopkins said.
Their sweat equity hours mostly go toward building their neighbors’ houses and then their own house, Hopkins said.
Pat Canty, a Habitat board member and regional vice president/publisher of the Odessa American, said the occasion brought things full circle for him.
“I had the good fortune of serving on the board for the Odessa Habitat for Humanity years ago when we were in operation and this house was built. And then things got tough and the local Odessa Habitat was no longer able to stay in operation …,” Canty said.
The Midland Habitat for Humanity approached him several years later about wanting to bring Odessa into the family and start building homes in both cities.
When Canty was on the board for Odessa, he said Midland was looked to as the gold standard because they did “so much good work” and were so robust.
So Canty got back into it and he’s glad he did.
Not long after that, about four houses down, he and some other volunteers were framing out a house for a new family.
“It was a Saturday morning and I was out there helping raise these frames and drive studs and several of the other board members were out here and other board members,” he recalled.
“I was working by this wonderful young lady and I kept thinking to myself, man I’m excited because I remember when I got my first home, what it was like and I could see how this house was going to look when it was built … So I was visiting with this lovely young lady because I thought she was just one of the volunteers. And I said, so you’re one of the volunteers and she gave me this huge smile and she says in such a proud voice, ‘No, this is my home.’ And (I’ve got to) tell you when somebody looks at you and says that, if you’re not already hooked and have a passion for doing this, you’re hooked then because to me for a family to have a home means so much. And the fact that Midland Odessa Habitat for Humanity can basically help these families, give them a home, is everything,” he added.
