Meet La’Kinya…
For 43-year-old single mom La’Kinya, homeownership was not originally in the cards.
Originally from Palatka, Florida, after high school La’Kinya made the choice to serve her country and joined the Navy. She served as a Storekeeper ordering helicopter parts as a member of the airborne mine counter-measure squadron HM-14. La’Kinya served in the Navy for four years, working her way up from an E-2 to an E-3.
Eventually though, La’Kinya knew it was time for a change. It was then that she moved from Norfolk, Virginia, to Jacksonville, Florida, and in 2020 she moved to St. Augustine.
Once in St. Augustine, however, La’Kinya realized she wasn’t done giving her time and efforts to important causes. It was then that she began her job working for The Arc of the St. Johns, a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring quality living for intellectually and developmentally disabled individuals.
La’Kinya has been working for The Arc for about five years now. Originally, she was a Home Manager for one of The Arc’s behavioral homes, helping to manage the day-to-day living and expenses of six clients. She said it was hard, challenging work and required a lot of patience and empathy.
She has moved up the ranks and is now the Assistant Area Coordinator. In her new role, La’Kinya helps manage The Arc’s 13 client homes. Her current responsibilities as Assistant Area Coordinator include administrative work, managing financial statements for The Arc’s 120 clients, and federal, state, and local licensing, among other responsibilities.
For many years, before La’Kinya became a mom and first moved to St. Augustine, she struggled, like many, facing the St. Johns County rental market.
In 2021 she started renting a two-bedroom apartment in West Augustine. Unfortunately, her landlady at the time, Miss Robbie, was in her 80s, and soon sold the duplex because of her age.
When the new landlords took ownership of the duplex, they chose to increase the rent of the two-bedroom unit from $875 a month to $1,400 a month without making necessary renovations.
Although the new landlords gave La’Kinya the option of staying in the two-bedroom side of the duplex, it was simply unaffordable. However, the landlords told La’Kinya that if she didn’t want the two-bedroom for $1,400, they would charge the next renter(s) even more.
Thankfully, La’Kinya had the option to move into the newly renovated one-bedroom apartment where the rent had only risen from $775 a month to $1,100 a month.
When La’Kinya became pregnant almost three years ago, she realized she needed a bigger space. Although La’Kinya had never expected to own her own home, she began to truly consider it for the first time. Her mom had told her about Habitat for Humanity of St. Augustine/St. Johns County (Habitat St. Johns) when she first moved to St. Augustine, but the application process was not open at the time.
La’Kinya faced significant changes after losing her mother last September, leaving her to care for her 11-month-old daughter completely on her own. Suddenly, she had lost a primary pillar of her support network and needed to find permanent childcare. Faced with the added expense, La’Kinya knew she needed to find a more stable alternative to renting, in case rent increased or in case the rental was sold again.
With this new motivation, La’Kinya renewed her search for homeownership and reached out to Habitat St. Johns to inquire about the application process.
She reflected that the application process itself wasn’t difficult, but that the key was to get all her financial documentation in order before turning in her application for the Homeownership Program.
It was in January of this year that La’Kinya received the news that she was accepted into the Homeownership Program. She recalled being so happy that she was jumping up and down cheering.
Although La’Kinya has found the mandatory sweat equity hours challenging to complete because of work and childcare, she quickly discovered how willing the St. Johns County community is to help each other out when she met Lynn from Hope 4 Veterans, a nonprofit that provides resources, support, and unique connections to women veterans. Hope 4 Veterans showed up with several female veteran volunteers to help La’Kinya obtain the Habitat Homeownership sweat equity hours. Lynn, an Army veteran herself, and other female veteran volunteers are going to help La’Kinya get her hours done so she can move one step closer to becoming a homeowner. In addition, Cassey, a Habitat St. Johns homeowner from the Canopy Oaks community came to pitch in and give back.
After this day volunteering and sweating together, La’Kinya is happy to have a new group of friends and sisters to connect with and count on.
La’Kinya and the Hope 4 Volunteers in a group shotLa’Kinya and her daughter are now sharing the one-bedroom apartment, but as La’Kinya reflects, “My daughter is getting bigger, and it feels like the bigger she gets, the smaller the room gets.”
La’Kinya is ready to have her own bedroom again, and to create a beautiful room for her daughter with all her favorite toys.
“This is a real blessing for me.” La’Kinya told Habitat staff, “I don’t think I could have done this without Habitat. I never expected to own a house until I had my daughter. But I want her to be able to say that her mom left her something. I want her to be able to say, ‘I grew up in a home.’”
