LEE COUNTY, Fla. – Ilieana Villaman held the keys to her new home, a milestone she never imagined would arrive so soon.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t feel real. It feels, like, it’s just, it’s so beautiful for me because I thought that I would maybe, maybe get a house when they were, like, 30,” Villaman said. “They’re going to have their own rooms. They’re going to be able to run.”<\/p>\n
For the past three years, Villaman and her family have struggled to keep a roof over their heads.<\/p>\n
“It felt like I was stuck. I felt like I was gonna be stuck there for a while,” Villaman said. “And then my dad told me about habitat. I knew habitat was there.”<\/p>\n
Villaman expressed concern for others in need of housing assistance in Lee County.<\/p>\n
“But there’s so many other people like in Lee County that need help,” Villaman said. “So, I was a little worried that I was just gonna be there forever. But now I’m here, and I’m so happy.”<\/p>\n
Karen Rodriguez, Chief Operating Officer at Habitat for Humanity in Lee and Hendry Counties, discussed the ongoing need for affordable housing.<\/p>\n
“After Hurricane Ian, we saw a peak. We couldn’t even have the capacity to help all the families that were coming through the door,” Rodriguez said. “Now, I think things have stabilized, but we still see a lot of help.”<\/p>\n
Villaman’s new home is proof that assistance is available.<\/p>\n
“If you have children, please don’t struggle. Find help,” Villaman said. “I’ll help you. I can help you now, like guys, I’m gonna be a homeowner. I can help you. We can help you.”<\/p>\n
Villaman’s journey to homeownership serves as an inspiration and a reminder of the support available in Lee County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla. – Ilieana Villaman held the keys to her new home, a milestone she never imagined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,3837,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-129680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-collaborator_gen_stories","12":"tag-lee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}