‘I wanted to teach my children that you have to lean on yourself’: Mom fulfills dream of owning home

The family used to take neighborhood field trips.

Catina Cooper and her five children would drive through subdivisions looking at homes.

“Are we getting a house today?” was the question her eldest child, RaKavius Chambers, always asked.

Cooper could only sigh and say no.

But in 2013 that changed and they moved into a beautiful, four-bedroom home in the Cedar Creek Subdivision in Opelika, Ala.

Left behind was a cramped apartment with no yard and little privacy. Left behind was an area where her children could come in contact with unsavory characters.

And she says she could not have done it without the help of NeighborWorks Columbus, a nonprofit organization that promotes and provides access to fit and affordable housing and builds assets for financial independence for all citizens of low- to moderate-income in Alabama and Georgia.

Cooper, 40, has been a single mom since a divorce.

She is an Auburn University graduate who works for the Alabama Council on Human Relations as a Head Start teacher.

Besides 17-year-old RaKavius, her children are 15-year-old Kyla, 12-year-old Kaden, 10-year-old Karson and 8-year-old Kennedy.

Except for its size, their last apartment was not bad but it had three children in one small bedroom and two in another.

Though she wanted out, she had credit issues that stood in the way of home ownership.

She would not accept help from her father.

“I wanted to teach my children that you have to lean on yourself, not others,” she said.

She began working a second job.

Still, she could not get back on track.

“It was always a dream to have my own home,” she said.

It was through workshops at NeighborWorks that she learned how to rebuild her credit. It took about four years to get where she needed to be. NeighborWorks also provided some down payment assistance.

“NeighborWorks empowered me to do what I needed to do to take that first step and improve my credit. I got a new mindset,” she said. “You have to live on a budget.”

She considers getting a house of her own a major accomplishment and it has brought her a “sense of peace.”

She said there are many other single mothers who would like a better place to raise their children.

“You have to really want it,” she said. “You have to take that first step. There is hope.”

She feels the new atmosphere helped her children in school.

RaKavius had often expressed the need for the personal space he needed to thrive said the change allowed him to focus more on his school work.

“It was wonderful to get this house,” he said. “It was pretty difficult to study sharing a room with two others.”

The change paid off.

The 6-foot-4, 300-pound teen is headed to Duke University on a full athletic scholarship to play football.

The senior at Opelika High School, who plans to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, was the winner of a National High School Heart of the Arts Award presented by the National Federation of State High School Association.

Besides being a great football player, RaKavius stood out with the schools’ show choir and the symphonic band in which he played the saxophone.

He was also the recipient of the 26th annual Franklin D. Watkins Award, presented by the National Alliance of African American Athletes to the nation’s top African-American male high school senior student athlete.

“It really meant so much to my children to move into this house,” she said.

Cooper said she encourages other mothers to do what she did and work to get into a house of their own, to lose that “can’t do this, can’t do that” attitude.

She said, “it’s not easy but it can be done.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2017 at 6:00 PM with the headline "‘I wanted to teach my children that you have to lean on yourself’: Mom fulfills dream of owning home."