Daricka, a mother to two teenage sons, has long dreamt of a home of her own. In fact, she used to imagine having a home they owned by the time her eldest son turned 18. With the ever-increasing housing costs in San Francisco, that dream was one that proved to be elusive, until now. Daricka and her sons, aged 13 and 18, are moving into their very own home on Amber Drive in San Francisco.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Daricka has never lived outside of the Bay Area. Its home and where her support network is. As she said, “I’m a city girl. I’ve been in the Bay Area my entire life. I was born in San Francisco, then I moved to the East Bay for a few years, then came back to SF. I don’t think I could be anywhere else because I’m a city girl. San Francisco and the Bay Area are my home, and it’s just me and my sister here. We don’t have a lot of family but we both live here in the city. She doesn’t want to leave me, and I don’t want to leave her. My kids and my sisters’ kids love San Francisco, it’s all they know, and they don’t want to leave to go anywhere. We’re city people and I don’t think I could be anywhere else.”
Daricka’s tie to the city doesn’t end there, as a health worker for the City and County of San Francisco, she is deeply invested in the city she calls home and the community she is a part of. In her role as a health worker, Daricka helps others in San Francisco get access to necessary services such as housing or medical care.
Along with the sense of community Daricka has built while doing her sweat equity alongside her new neighbors, she is looking forward to the stability of homeownership. As Daricka said, “The Amber neighbors feel like they’ll be my forever neighbors and it feels like there won’t be a revolving door of neighbors like you have in apartments.” Their new neighborhood is also a source of stability for Daricka where she feels more comfortable with her younger son exploring now they are away from the hustle and bustle of their previous neighborhood.
“I’m looking forward to it being my forever home and that I won’t have to leave it. Also, that my kids can witness that we have a little piece of San Francisco and I thought that we would never have a piece of San Francisco. It’s a little piece but we got a piece.”
– Daricka, Habitat GSF homeowner
When you support Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, you invest in your community. You invest in stability for working families. You invest in the next generation in your communities.
You help your neighbors build a home of their own.