By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Irene Guzman smiled for pictures with her children and grandchildren gathered around her on the front porch of her new home Wednesday.
But it was only six months ago she and her large family were living in what the family referred to as the “tin can” — a singlewide trailer where no one in the family felt safe.
Guzman, 53, and her family were visited Wednesday by USDA Rural Development State Director Lynn Hinrichsen to celebrate National Home Ownership Month.
“In 2018, USDA Rural Development assisted 1,426 individuals in purchasing a home in rural Kansas communities,” Hinrichsen said in a news release. “Homeownership helps build strong rural communities throughout the state.”
Guzman said she would not have been able to purchase her family’s five-bedroom home on 19th Street without the help of Rural Development.
Living in the tin can
The family of seven was living in a three-bedroom trailer. Guzman said it was difficult to squeeze everyone into the space, and there was little privacy.
Not only was the tin can cramped, but several incidents led the Guzmans to feel increasingly unsafe.
Guzman and her husband lived in the trailer park for 18 years. They went on vacation, and when they returned they found a bullet hole in the trailer. That is when they thought they needed to start looking for a new home.
Irene said things got worse after the recent passing of her husband. Her daughter heard some racket outside about 2 a.m. one morning. Guzman said she thought it might just be a stray dog, but the next morning they discovered their car tires and a garden hose slashed.
“They slashed our tire and left the knife they used in our car,” she said.
Guzman reported the incident, but police were not able to apprehend the perpetrator.
About a week later, the Guzman’s tools were stolen.
Looking for a home
Guzman, now a single mom and grandmother with custody of two of her grandchildren, said the family struggled to find a suitable home and the financing to pay for that home in Hays.
Guzman works as an interpreter for the Hispanic ministry at the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Hays. Neither she or her husband before his passing made much money for their family size nor did they have high credit scores.
“The banks wouldn’t be able to help us, because it was just extremely too much money — the payments,” she said.
They were hoping to find a house to rent to own, but were coming up empty. The Guzmans then turned to Habitat for Humanity, but that organization only had a home available in Victoria at the time.
Guzman sometimes works on an on-call basis for her job and all the children were enrolled in either Holy Family or Thomas More Prep-Marian in Hays. She said she did not feel it would be practical to live outside of Hays at the time.
Rural Development explained to Irene finding a home in Hays would be more difficult than Victoria because of the higher prices.
“We searched and looked, and they worked with me,” Guzman said of Rural Development. “They helped me a lot. … When we finally got it done, oh my gosh, I couldn’t believe it.”
She said she did not think she would have ever been a homeowner without Rural Development’s help.
“They moved a lot of things around to make this possible for me,” she said.
A new home, a new life
Guzman said she could see a change in her youngest daughter, who is 13, when they moved out of the tin can. Before she said she was reluctant to bring friends home. Now she welcomes friends into their new house.
“I think having this is bigger and more privacy,” she said, “because she has her own room to invite her friends and they are able to hang out.”
The family has a fenced yard where the younger children can play, a garden and two new puppies.
Guzman had been dreaming of a home for years. She had large framed pictures stored away in closets that could no way fit on the walls of the tiny tin can, but she knew some day she would have home with walls on which to hang that artwork. Today, they are a proud part of the decor in her new home.
“I accumulated quite a bit. They said, ‘Get rid of it. Get rid of it,’ but I said one day. … one day and finally it came true,” she said.
Her family also teased her, saying she could become a cat lady now that she had more space. A caretaker at heart, Guzman has filled her bright living room with plants of all sizes and colors instead.
The new space has brought the family together and in some ways pushed it apart.
In addition to a very full household of children and grandchildren, Guzman has older children and extended family who come home for holidays. Guzman loves to cook and now has a kitchen with two ovens and a dining area big enough to gather everyone for big family diners.
“I can put in a turkey and a ham,” she said of the ovens.
One of the children said he used to climb under a card table to find a spot to sit during those big family gatherings in the tin can.
Irene closed on her house on Dec. 17, so the family was able to enjoy Christmas in the new home. They also had a large family celebration on Easter.
However, Guzman said after living in such cramped quarters for so long, the larger house almost seems a little lonely.
“Sometimes I just get a little lonely, because they are all in their secluded spaces,” she said. “Before, they ran into each other every time they were going to the kitchen or I always saw traffic. Now there is not a lot of traffic.”
The family’s closing was on day of the Feast for the Lady Guadalupe. Guzman had hoped to schedule the closing on another day because she was supposed to help with the feast at the church that day, but everything fell in to place on feast day. She said it must have been what the Lady wanted.
“I thank God,” she said. “I thank God that He took us out of the situation that we were in and He helped us through Rural Development to come here. It took a lot of prayers. I feel like He answered our prayers. We are here, and it’s a wonderful house.”
Rural development celebrates home ownership
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USDA Single Family Housing programs have served more than 4.4 million families in rural America since President Truman signed the Housing Act in 1949. Throughout June, USDA employees will celebrate National Homeownership Month with events across the nation that demonstrate USDA’s commitment to provide access to affordable housing for rural Americans. Rural Development has several programs that support rural homeownership, including:
To learn more about USDA’s housing programs in Kansas, email [email protected] or call 785-271-2700. |