Chattanooga: Habitat home for refugees to earn energy certification

After 10 years of living in African refugee camps and two years in a one-bedroom apartment, Baja Dalla and his family soon will have a house they can call their own.

Next March, Mr. Dalla, his wife, Nyanchi, and three small children will move to one of the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified Habitat for Humanity homes in the world on East 19th Street in the Jefferson Heights arera, Jeff Cannon with GreenSpaces said at a news conference Monday.

For Mr. Dalla, owning his own home means being a step closer to fulfilling his dream of becoming a doctor and hopefully one day helping the people in Ethiopia, where he lived for 10 years after fleeing Sudan.

For about two months, Mr. Dalla, 25, and his family traveled on foot from Sudan to Ethiopia. His mother and seven siblings died in the journey, while his father made it to Ethiopia but later died in a refugee camp.

Mr. Dalla, who resettled in Chattanooga two years ago with his wife and oldest son, said he used to cry for his lost parents, sometimes for entire nights, but now that he’s a father all he wants is to provide a home and a better education for his children.

“I’m good now because my children, they are going to be my brothers, my sisters,” he said. “I’m feeling good now.

“After this house is built, I can send them to school,” he said. “That’s why I really need a house.”

Mr. Dalla works at American Plastic Co., where he makes $9 an hour, and he pays $550 for rent. His wife stays home to take care of Joshua, 2; Joel, 1, and Josephine, who was born last week, he said.

Mr. Cannon said GreenSpaces, a three-year initiative helping fund the LEED Habitat home, decided to help build Mr. Dalla’s future home because it is part of its mission.

“You see these $300,000 or $400,000 homes being built green, and that’s all fine and good,” he said, “but the people that really need it are (those) in affordable housing.”

The Habitat for Humanity homes are sold at no profit, financed with a 15- to 25-year 0 percent interest mortgage. Clients must complete 300 “sweat equity” hours, which include 100 hours working on the construction site and the rest in educational classes and volunteering in other Habitat projects, according to Habitat’s Web site.

Mr. Dalla will lend a hand in building his future home this week at the corner of Market and Main streets, a temporary building site for the home before it moves to its permanent location. After the house is finished he will get his general education development certificate and return to school, he said.