Clockwise from top left: Charae Howard, Roger Eggert, Dr. John and Lisa Nielsen, and Antoinette Allen on Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity’s build day in Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Before she heaved a shovel into the ground of her future home site on Saturday, Brittny Puckett had visited the empty lot numerous times to reflect.

It was a snow-covered plot of grass when Puckett learned from Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity that her new house would be built there this summer. She would sit in her parked car out front, pause, and thank god.

“It’s been so many times I’ll drive out here and just park in front of the spot when it was just grass,” Puckett, a single mother of three, said Saturday after a ceremony to celebrate the start of Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity’s construction season.

She was one of three future homeowners from seven houses being built on hand for Saturday’s ceremonial groundbreaking and wall-raising ceremony. Dozens of volunteers were also there to lend labor and construction expertise to the project.

“My kids can actually see, you build from the ground up and you can move into something that’s yours,” Puckett said. “My kids will know if you work you can get what you want. It might take time, you might have to go through different experiences, but you can get there.”

Related: ‘Everything I asked for, plus more’: Rockford woman’s prayers answered with new Habitat home
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‘Allowing them to rise above’

Habitat gives access to homeownership to people who couldn’t otherwise afford their first property. Recipients must pay 30% of their monthly gross income as mortgage.

The program not only gives people a place to live, but it helps create generational wealth and closes a racial wealth gap that has persisted for decades due to redlining and other discriminatory housing practices, said Keri Asevedo, executive director of Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity.

“At the end of the day the feel good is that their kids get to have a safe place to lay their heads at night, and we love that,” Asevedo said. “But more importantly organizations like Habitat for Humanity are changing the systems, the processes and policies that have been put in place to keep people down, and what we are doing is allowing them to rise above.”

Rockford Habitat will complete construction on two homes this summer built with the help of East and Jefferson high schools. Seven additional homes will be built from the ground up. The footings, cement foundation and underground plumbing were done before Saturday’s ceremony.

“It is such a powerful feeling for them to see this come to fruition. We’ve been talking about this since September of 2019 when they first applied for the program,” Asevedo said. “Now to see this … it’s really a very emotional time for so many of our families.”

Puckett said the feeling was “overwhelming.” She has three children ages 20, 19 and 14 and a grandchild on the way.

“Where I’m living now the rent is $950 a month for something I’m renting, and they don’t take care of the property,” said Puckett, a mortgage collector who was working in distribution before a back injury. “I can have something for my grandchild now. I can see where my money will go to, instead of just working every day and not seeing it.”

‘We can finally call a house a home’

Antoinette Allen, in black sweatshirt, and Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity volunteers prepare to raise walls on her future home on Saturday, May 7, 2022, on Carol Place in Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

Antoinette Allen, like all of Habitat’s homeowners, trudged through the muddy construction site Saturday to help raise walls on her future home.

“I’m a girly, girl … I don’t want to get dirty, but it’s something that I want to work for,” Allen said. Then one day she can look back and say “I did this.”

Allen has three sons ages 20, 17 and 10, and she has two grandchildren. They had lived in apartments, or stayed with her mother, for years before applying for Habitat’s program.

“We can finally call a house a home,” she said. “It will be something they can show their little ones and hopefully start them with the journey of the homebuilding process.”

The Rockford native encouraged others to apply for the program.

“I cried on the way here because I’m just so overjoyed. It’s been a journey,” Allen said. “It’s been a long journey, because I started this process in 2019, and we’re finally here today.”

‘Still a blessing’

Dr. John and Lisa Nielsen, holding a photo of their son, Daniel, listen to remarks Saturday, May 7, 2022, about Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity’s build day being renamed in his honor. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

The annual community build day was bestowed a new name this year in honor of a Rockford native who was an energetic advocate for Habitat for Humanity, working to raise funds and build homes for an affiliate in Alabama.

Daniel Nielsen, a 2015 Auburn High School graduate, died on Nov. 16 after an accidental fall while with friends in California. He was 25. His parents, Dr. John and Lisa Nielsen, pledged his memorial donations to Rockford Habitat.

During his time in Tuscaloosa, Nielsen became an active member of that Habitat chapter, eventually serving as its treasurer and then president.

“There began his legacy of this work. Daniel worked tirelessly to help build homes with the University of Alabama affiliate in Tuscaloosa where he helped raise $200,000 for their affiliate over the years that he was there,” Asevedo said.

She announced the renaming of the build day as the Daniel Nielsen Memorial Community Build “because if anybody embodied community it was certainly Daniel Nielsen.”

Nielsen’s parents said he was a humble man and not one to tout his own accomplishments. If he were still alive today, he would have been working throughout the day to raise walls on the new homes.

“Daniel would be a driving force with energy at something like this,” John Nielsen said. “Behind the scenes he’d be involved with fundraising and organizing.”

Lisa Nielsen said their son made them better people.

“Every day is a painful reality. It never goes away,” she said. “We’re just trying to learn to live with our loss.”

This memorial helps them cope with that loss and keep his legacy alive.

“Our son was a blessing to us and he’s a blessing to others,” John Nielsen said. “He’s not with us here physically, but he’s still a blessing to us and our community.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram at @thekevinhaas