Habitat for Humanity completes home in Aiken Heights for family (2024)

Habitat for Humanity celebrated the completion of a new house for an Aiken family.

The Aiken Heights neighborhood welcomed Detria Holmes and her five children July 11 after six months of construction to a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with new appliances and a shed.

“What does the day mean to me? Special,” Holmes said. “I’ve been waiting a long time to get a house for my kids. Just in case something happens to me, they’ll have something to fall back on.”

Holmes said she has been living in an apartment for around 18 years.

The house gives her all the space she needs to continue to raise her children, who range in age from 4 to 12.

Part of the Habitat project involves preparing recipients for home ownership with financial counseling from Security Federal Bank.

Financial counselor Dana Cook said Holmes was her first client.

“She has been committed to Habitat, she has been committed to our financial counseling program and she's been committed to her family,” Cook said. “I just know she is going to be successful and maintain this house for all the years to come.”

Several organizations provided Holmes with housewarming gifts, including gift bags for her kids, a birdhouse and a picnic table assembled by students in the St. John’s Methodist Church’s Vacation Bible School, to “make the house a home.”

Publix Super Markets Charities, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, Aiken Association of Realtors and Crane Payment Innovations provided money for materials and other project expenses.

With the completion of the Holmes house, Aiken’s Habitat for Humanity has provided 137 homes to families since 1988.

Aiken County Habitat Director Arie Murphy welcomed the family to the home with a quote she found.

“Home is where love resides, memories are created, friends always belong and laughter never ends,” Murphy said. “A house is made of bricks and beams, a home is made of hopes and dreams. Home is not a place — it’s a feeling.”