“For local mother, Habitat STAR project offers path to home ownership”

By: Payton Kifus

Thanks in part to the efforts of Hanover and King William Habitat for Humanity volunteers, a local mother will soon be able to achieve her longtime dream of home ownership.

On Feb. 19, Hanover and King William Habitat for Humanity celebrated the groundbreaking of lots two and three of the organization’s STAR development.

For KeeKee Holloway, that means leaving behind a cramped Mechanicsville apartment for a new home of her own.

Holloway’s journey to owning her own home has not been easy, she admits, and has included stints in public housing that she describes as traumatic.

Holloway experienced living in public housing with her mother for parts of her childhood and said that she has always been around the public housing community.

“As I got older I didn’t realize the trauma [that living in public housing] brought on me,” said Holloway. “It was traumatizing, but it was normal for me at the same time.”

Holloway explained that she had to go back to public housing as an adult with her children for some time, but said her past experience taught her “what not to do.”

“My children rarely came outside,” Holloway said. “We would drive outside of the community to go grocery shopping and allow them to play outside. My second time living in public housing wasn’t as traumatizing, but more so motivational.”

Although she said the home owning process can be stressful at times, Holloway said that this opportunity has been an honor and a blessing.

“The staff have all been awesome and very supportive through the whole process,” said Holloway. “Being a first time homeowner and not being educated on the process, overall, on what it looks like to own a home—they walked me through all of it.”

Habitat has been working on developing almost two acres in Ashland, at the corner of (S)outh (T)aylor Street and (AR)lington Streets, into a five-lot affordable home development, also known as “STAR.”

Holloway will be the first person in her immediate family to own a home and is excited to have an asset that she’ll be able to leave to her children and call their own.

“Not everyone is able to get an opportunity like this, especially today with the market and everything going on. It’s getting hard to even rent, let alone own a home… I’m thankful, happy and blessed,” said Holloway.

Holloway now serves as a community health worker in the same public housing community that she once lived in. She says that her inspiration to do this work was knowing that others needed help and her knowledge, through her mother’s and her own experience, about what it is like in the community.

“I know what it’s like from my mom to want help and not know where to get it, or to have these resources and there be barriers like lack of education or knowledge to those resources,” said Holloway. “I just have a passion for helping others, being that I’ve seen and watched my mother struggle, needing help herself. As well as me, getting into motherhood and having little to no help.”

Holloway said she is excited to be able to break “generational curses” and to pass down the knowledge that she has gained to her children and show them that it can be done.

“[I’m excited] to be able to bring all of my family together in one space and for there to be just enough room for everybody,” said Holloway. “One of my goals is to have more family gatherings.”

For more information on the STAR development or to donate, visit https://www.hkwhabitat.org/star/.