Key Points
- Habitat for Humanity dedicates 100th Rock the Block home in northeast Wichita.
- Naomi Vertilus receives keys to her own 5-bedroom home, making a 22-year dream come true.
- Habitat for Humanity program provides education on financial aspects, home maintenance, and more.
Ever since she gave birth to her first child 22 years ago, Naomi Vertilus, has dreamed about a home of her own. And now, that dream has come true.
On a cold, snowy January afternoon, the mother of four was handed the keys to her very own 5-bedroom home following a dedication ceremony to celebrate the 100th Rock the Block home built by Habitat for Humanity in northeast Wichita.
Rock the Block is a decade-old project to improve the housing stock and increase the level of home ownership in the long-blighted area bordered by Hillside on the East, Grove on the West, 9th Street on the south and 13th Street on the North.
The area was expanded last year north from 13th to 18th streets.
Naomi’s new home at 1357 N. Chautauqua was built with the help of 341 Habitat volunteers from the First Church of the Nazarene.
Naomi moved from her native New York 17 years ago, encouraged by her older brother who had found opportunity in Wichita in the late 1990s.
“I knew I wanted to be a nurse,” she said. “But life kept putting off my dreams.”
Her oldest son, Dontae was 5 years old, her second son, Vatedis, was a baby and her two daughters Vanessa and Nylah, now 15 and 9 respectively, had not been born.
After almost two decades of part-time work and part-time school, she graduated from Hesston College with a bachelor’s degree in nursing in May 2022.
“A month later, I was talking to my brother and he said “the next step is that home you’ve always wanted” and I started looking for a way to make that happen.”
She was aware of the Habitat for Humanity program and thought it sounded like something that might work for her and her family. She called Habitat and talked to advisor Katharine Franco who explained the program and the required documents, classes and income.
At the time, Naomi was working as a CNA until she passed her state nursing boards, so her income wasn’t high enough to qualify for the program.
“But I got an offer letter from Ascension Via Christi. Using that, she cleared me to start earning sweat equity hours so when I did pass the boards, I’d be able to get started on other parts of the program right away.”
With boards out the way, in September 2022 she started working in the ICU unit at St. Francis Hospital and began working full-time in earnest – in both nursing and in studying to become a homeowner.
One of things that really sold her on the program was the educational component. She attended classes on the basics of buying a home and financial “Smart Money” that taught her to spend money wisely, as well as classes on home maintenance and gardening.
She was able to take her children with her to onsite training classes and her daughter attended all of the online classes with her. She shared what she learned with her children.
“It really made me aware of my lack of financial education, and I feel much more confident that I can do this. I understand how important it is to budget for homeowner’s insurance, for taxes and for upkeep. I think those are things that would trip up a lot of first-time owners.”.
Even the sweat equity hours provided valuable education, she said. Her sons, Dontae and Vatedis agree, they enjoyed learning basic building skills while helping build their home and putting in sweat equity hours helping build others. The boys learned basic retail skills working in the Habitat ReStore, which takes in donated building materials, appliances and furniture and resells them at affordable prices.
Dontae is working as an A&P Mechanic and Vatedis will graduate high school in May with an A&P Mechanic certification. Both boys plan to enroll in WSU in the fall to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering.
Combined, the Vertilus family put in 250 hours of sweat equity and put in hundreds more hours in classes expanding their basic home ownership knowledge.
“It was fun for me seeing my sons working side by side at building sites. They had so much fun doing tha,” Naomi said.
Now, she said, comes both the joy and the responsibility of home ownership. She’s eager for spring weather and the opportunity to spend time with family and friends in her backyard.
She is also looking forward to being able to give back to the community and to other women trying to achieve their dreams.
“I would love to be an advocate for women and for children, lead an effort to improve senior care and be of service to the community,” she said.
Statistics
Since 2014, Habitat for Humanity has focused its Wichita programming in a 32-block-area in Northeast Wichita and their focused effort has paid off in many ways.
If you drive through the area, bound by13th Street on the north, Hillside on the east, 9th Street on the south and Grove on the west, It’s easy to see the physical impact of Habitat’s programming. Ten years ago the neighborhood looked like a tornado had come through it, with mounds and mounds of illegally dumped trash on more than 100 vacant lots.
This month, as the program celebrated the 100th new Habitat homeowner in the area, they also celebrated a doubling of property values in the area. Three-bedroom Habitat homes built in 2014, the first year of the Rock the Block program, have doubled in value. According to statistics supplied by Habitat Executive Director Danielle Johnson, those homes purchased for $75,000 are now valued at $150,000.
