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Residents praise Texarkana City HOME rebuilds; volunteers deliver welcome baskets
Summary
Two program recipients described relief after substandard homes were replaced, and a volunteer said the city delivered pantry and fresh-produce welcome boxes to each new household.
Speaker 2, a program recipient, described an emotional response to moving into the rebuilt home: "I think I cried in every room. And before we put the the walls up, I wrote on all the woodwork. God bless this room. God bless my kitchen."
A volunteer, identified in the transcript as Speaker 3, said community members prepared welcome baskets and stocked recipients’ pantries and refrigerators: "Michelle reached out to us and asked if we could maybe do a welcome basket of food items for the recipients of this program ... why don't we just stock their pantry in their fridge. So we've come over today to greet each 1 of the recipients with a box of pantry items as well as a box of fresh produce."
Speaker 4, another recipient, recounted the house’s prior condition and the relief the rebuild provided: "This house that was here before was hanging on by wing in a prayer. And every time we tried to fix something, it just showed us something new that needed to be worked on." They said they could not apply earlier because they did not own the property and that after securing ownership documents they pursued the program; the speaker noted practical benefits such as no longer needing extension cords to operate the kitchen and no leaks in the back wall.
The comments provided human context to staff’s presentation about the HOME program and described volunteers’ roles in welcoming new homeowners. There was no formal vote or policy change recorded in the session.
