Meet Recent Homeowner, Paula Crosley!

“I cry every time I think about having a home of my own!” exclaimed recently selected homeowner, Paula Crosley. “My son will know what it’s like to live in a normal place.”

Crosley, a network computer specialist at Sheridan College, has been living in an apartment complex that she feels is unsafe. The soot in the heating system affects her asthma and gives her sinus headaches, and she said the dust is so bad that she must wear a mask whenever she cleans.

She and her son, Buzz (14), have lived there for seven years and are excited to finally have a new home.

“My son will be able to play outside,” she said, “and all I can think about is a garden! I want herbs, and my son wants to plant roses.”

Crosley added that she is also excited for the increased privacy she will have in her new home.

“I want to get out of the fish bowl,” she said. “It will be nice to not share a wall.”

She currently pays $640 a month for her apartment and has $35,000 in student loans. Her life has also not been an easy one. She has suffered parental and domestic abuse, but said she has overcome a lot of obstacles and liberated herself from those unhealthy situations.

Crosley said she is so excited about starting the building processes that she keeps driving by the lot on Parker Street that will eventually be hers.

“Maybe I’ll just pitch a tent up there!” she said.

She added that she is particularly proud of the work she will be doing to make this house possible; including the sweat equity hours she will be putting in and the mortgage she will eventually pay off. She wants people in the community to understand the part she will play.

“Most people don’t know that you don’t just get a house handed to you,” she said.
She also said she wants to give back to the community and has been participating in other volunteer opportunities around Sheridan.

She said, “When I’m having a bad day, I think of the other people who have it worse.”