UC Celebrates the Completion of Another Habitat Home

It has been a year of anticipation for Custodio Muianga, his wife, Edite, and their three small children, Maite, Edivale and Marla. After raising the first wall of their future home with University of Cincinnati student volunteers in early September, their dream of home ownership is now a reality.

The dedication takes place at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 19, at the new home at 3556 Haven St. in Avondale, just two doors down from where UC volunteers completed the third home in partnership with Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity last spring.

The Muiangas are from Mozambique. Custodio Muianga has a full scholarship to UC as he studies for his PhD in environmental safety and occupational hygiene. He is also a student helper in the UC Office of Environmental Health and Safety.

Construction began on the Muiangas’ two-story, three-bedroom home in early September, when a group of first-year UC Honors Scholars started work at the site two weeks before fall classes got underway as part of their service-learning English class. Throughout the academic year, UC student volunteers have spent Saturdays working at the site with the new homeowners.

“Edite and I had a great experience working with the UC volunteers,” says Custodio Muianga. “It’s amazing how these people contributed both skill and energy into their work. When we look at our house, we see the good hands and hearts which built our house.”

In addition to investing 500 hours of sweat equity into their home, the Muiangas will purchase the home with a 25-year, interest-free mortgage made payable to Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity. On the $70,000 home, the monthly payment amounts to $350 – a considerable savings over the $600 per month the Muiangas were paying to rent a cramped, two-bedroom apartment.

Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity reports that children of homeowners are 25 percent more likely to graduate from high school, 116 percent more likely to earn a college degree and 20 percent less likely to become teenage mothers. The organization also states that just 38 percent of the City of Cincinnati’s families are homeowners, compared with an average of 68 percent in cities of comparable size nationally.

Tom Salzbrun, executive director of Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity, quoted a poem by Pam Brown, saying, 'For no good thing ever vanishes; it is carried forward from generation to generation.'

Salbrun says all volunteers on the build shared a dream with the Muiagnas. "It is the dream of home ownership -- the dream of making a safe, happy place in the world to share with family and friends. Because of their willingness to invest their time, energy and resources in that dream, it is now a reality, the impact of which will carry forward from generation to generation."

The UC/Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity project is sponsored in partnership with Fifth Third Bank and the Messer Construction Company, with support from University Dining Services. Workers with Valley Interior Systems, a subcontractor of Messer Construction, professionally installed the drywall inside the home during a week-long blitz in December.

UC’s first university-wide project with Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity started in 2003 on Winkler Street in Mt. Auburn, when volunteers constructed a home for the family of Sylvia Smith. The following year, volunteers built a home for Smith’s sister, Janie Cunningham, on the same street. During the 2005-2006 academic year, the construction moved closer to campus in Avondale, as volunteers built a home on Haven Street with Megan O’Malley and her young daughter, Shamia. The UC/Habitat steering committee was honored by the university with a Just Community award last spring.