Habitat for Humanity East Bay
Stay in Touch Online!
Watch the Paschall Story
Habitat East Bay Overview
Meet the Paschall Family
Valerie Paschally, her husband, John, and their three children have been living in their Habitat home for seven years now. The stability of their home has changed their lives. While many in the East Bay have struggled to make ends meet, the security of homeownership has helped their family continue to flourish.
Prior to moving into their home at the Crockett development in 2003, the road ahead looked uncertain. The five of them lived in a cramped, two bedroom apartment – three children in one room, Valerie and John in the other. The walls were moldy, the windows leaked and the lack of insulation burdened them with high electric bills and persistent health problems. The apartment was hardly a place anyone could call home. There is little time to dream of what is possible, when the day-to-day is so trying, Valerie recalls.
Many would have moved, but the expensive Bay Area housing market excluded the Paschalls from renting or owning a home that suited their needs. They felt paralyzed. Valerie and John sadly resigned their family to struggling in a sub-standard house until she heard about and applied to Habitat East Bay’s homeownership program. When they were accepted into the program there were shouts of praise and thanksgiving that are still ringing in Valerie’s ears. After a long, hot summer and 500 hours of “sweat-equity” logged, the Paschall family finally had a home to call their own.
Today, seven years later, the outlook on their lives has changed drastically. With their housing secured, they have accomplished a great deal despite the economic climate: John graduated to become a journeymen plumber, all three of the Paschall children have graduated from high school and are going to college, and Valerie also graduated from college two years ago receiving her diploma along side her eldest son.
“For us, Habitat means a lot more than just a house. It’s given us hope; it’s given us stability. It’s a blessing,” says Valerie.
