Habitat's Loudoun chapter moves east

For single mother Nadia Elkotbi, the American dream of owning a home seemed likely to remain an illusion until she found Loudoun Habitat for Humanity.

With the help of the organization, the 30-year-old Moroccan-born mother of three will close on a renovated townhouse in the Newberry section of Sterling Park next month.

"I'm not going to worry in the future," she said. "I won't have to sign a lease every year, and as my kids grow, up they'll have more room."

Getting Elkotbi into a renovated townhouse in the more heavily populated eastern side of the county is part of a new effort by the organization, which traditionally has focused on building houses in western Loudoun County, where land prices are lower. Since the start of the local Habitat chapter 17 years ago, the organization has built 13 houses, all west of Route 15 near Leesburg.

Alta Jones, president of the Loudoun Habitat for Humanity, said the organization recently decided to boost its presence in eastern Loudoun because the area is growing and is closer to public transportation.

She said she also wanted the organization to leverage federal stimulus dollars. Under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, Virginia received $38.7 million in grants to help local governments and nonprofit groups purchase foreclosed houses.

Loudoun received $2 million through the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program, Jones said. The county tapped Habitat for Humanity this year to help administer the program for the area's neediest families.

Jones said the goal of the program is to save endangered neighborhoods.

"We see that in prior housing debacles, the character of neighborhoods has changed to rental communities overnight as investors come in to buy foreclosures," she said.

Elkotbi's townhouse is a smaller-scale, less-expensive project for Habitat for Humanity, which typically builds houses from the ground up. Renovating a property has been a new experience for volunteers. Bud Green, the organization's construction supervisor, said the project took six or seven weekends instead of the six months it usually takes to build a house.

Habitat volunteers completed a lot of the major work. They repainted the three bedrooms, installed new tubs, showers and vanities in the bathrooms and put carpeting in the stairways and flooring in the kitchen. They added a storm door, demolished a basement wall and installed a heating and air conditioning system. Whirlpool is donating a refrigerator and stove.

As part of the arrangement, Elkotbi completed 200 hours of required "sweat equity" on the renovation project. She helped with whatever was needed, including ripping out and replacing flooring, carpets and tile and helping with plumbing, painting and cabinet installation.

Elkotbi said she would have had a hard time buying a house without help from Habitat for Humanity. She said most of her income goes to bills and the rent on her two-bedroom apartment, where she lives with her three children: daughters Dunia, 5, and Hyatt, 4, and son Alladin, 18 months.

"It's hard to be a single mom," she said. "To be working a full-time job and having three kids, it's hard to save. This has been a good experience for me."

Elkotbi's house will be dedicated at a ceremony April 10.