Life Transformed for the Hawkins Family

Times were hard for the "Hawkins" household in rural East Tennessee. After teaching school all day, Mrs. Hawkins returned home each night to tend to her ailing husband. A series of strokes and other medical complications had left him bedridden, and his health continued to deteriorate. Due to narrow doorways and uneven floors, Mr. Hawkins was unable to ambulate beyond his bedroom. Because the Hawkins' home had no indoor plumbing, Mrs. Hawkins had bathed her husband by hand with water she pumped from the well. Each day she carried out his waste in a bucket because he was unable to access the outhouse.

Then the Hawkins received a HOME grant through their local county government, the First Tennessee Development District, and the Tennessee Housing Development Agency. About $55,000 of HOME funds were spent to reconstruct the Hawkins' home, which had no running water or indoor plumbing, multiple code violations, and many sanitation, fire, and safety hazards.

Mr. Hawkins' medical conditions are severe and Hospice workers feared that he might not live to see the reconstruction completed. However, his pride in the family's new home, in conjunction with heightened sanitary conditions, resulted in marked improvements in his health. And thanks to the universal design and exterior access ramp in this new home, he has been able to move outside of his bedroom and outdoors in his wheelchair for the first time in nearly a decade.