Elderly Couple Gets New Home

Tonight, two senior citizens are resting easy in their brand-new home, thanks to the generosity of Heritage Bank and Hand in Hand Ministries. Urbano Flores and Olive Bennett, chosen from among several families, were deemed most in need of this wonderful gift. This afternoon, a heartfelt ceremony took place on Delsyia Goff Street, where the couple received the keys to their new wooden house. News Five’s Marion Ali brings us the story.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

An elderly couple who was living in less than human conditions at their residence have a new, dry home to rest their heads tonight. Eighty-year-old Urbano Flores and eighty-eight-year-old Olive Bennett have been together for eighteen years, and they’ve also been living in less than comfortable conditions for many years. But not anymore and today Flores was grateful.

 

Urbano Flores, New Homeowner

“ Thank God and thanks to the Heritage Bank. And Mr. Duncan and all who help us work on it, contribute their labor, I’m thankful to all, even to you who di record it. I went and I applied and then well, we keep in contact and, eh, told me, they call me and tell me, well, they’re going to do it last Friday. And I was very happy because I was waiting for it.”

 

Reporter

“Can you tell us the condition of your previous house?”

 

Urbano Flores

“Well, the problem is that every time it rain, we have water problem. We have to struggle through the mud and the water and then I had an outside bathroom. So, it was very inconvenient. For It’s basically, because she’s 76, I’m 70, so to walk in that wire, each day when you get up, you go on there and travel through it.”

 

The gift came from Heritage Bank and Hand in Hand Ministries. Hand in Hand conducted the screening. Rasheida Belthran is the Director of Building for Change program, which operates Hand in Hand Ministries.

 

Rashieda Bethran, Director, Building for Change Prog.

“Ultimately, Heritage Bank decided on which family from the three that we Um, uh, well, we, we can handle for families of greater need, and it’s a challenging situation when we have to choose from a list of qualified partners, but from all those we have assessed during this process, Mr. Albano and Ms. Olive were one of the most needy at the time, based on their conditions, as you guys can see.”

 

Since 2017, Heritage Bank has been giving out homes to needy families. The one handed over to Flores and Bennett today was the nineteenth. And while many of us were in the warmth and dry of ours while it rained over the past weekend, the staff of Heritage Bank were at the Delcia Goff Street location hammering nails into sheets of board.

 

Stephen Duncan, Managing Director, Heritage Bank

“We try to do one every year, except in 2020 when we did one every month. So it’s something that we feel it’s helping to fill a need, fill a void, and so we are happy to do what we can to assist with the program. I think it’s a wonderful program, and we actually participate, the staff actually participate as the labor force when we do things like this. So, we were here Friday, Saturday, Sunday, even in the rain, trying to get this done. So I’m pleased to see that we were able to accomplish it.”

 

Duncan explained that the other families whose names were on the list of potentials will also get a home but sponsored by another company. Marion Ali for News Five.