Jan Broughton politely makes it clear from the start. “I’m not the subject of this story.” A board member and former chair for Greene County Habitat for Humanity, Jan could share plenty about her own struggles and triumphs. But not right now. She wants us instead to travel seven miles outside the Reynolds gates, along a rolling country road, and into a driveway ensconced by welcoming trees and a swing hanging from one branch.
There, on the front porch, the subject waits. This is Deavon Janes. This is her home. They can both be described as “happy.”
“Please, come in,” Deavon says. Inside, a string of Christmas lights hangs over the front window.
“My daughters put them up right after we moved in,” Deavon says, “and we never took them down because they’re joyful.”
The living room is a perpetual celebration, just the way a living room should be. Pictures on the walls show Deavon’s four girls in mid-hug and mid-laugh.
“Being in a stable home has changed all of us,” Deavon says.
Jan stands quietly in the background, listening. She has stood in this general spot dozens of times, before and during construction of Deavon’s house. It’s one of more than 80 homes Habitat for Humanity of Greene County has built since 1996 for individuals and families in need of affordable housing. The work never stops.
“The number of homes is amazing because of the generosity it requires,” Jan says. “Having said that, we can’t raise enough money to build the homes needed. Habitat is currently the only provider of affordable housing in the area. We had 151 families apply for a home in early 2024 and have 11 in our
queue for home ownership. Our hearts break for all the families we aren’t currently able to help. But at the same time, we celebrate whenever we can help even one family. Deavon’s family is extra special because of what they went through to get here.”
No one should be living in this place. That’s what Jan thought when she made the required tour of the structure where Deavon and her daughters were living during the application process for a Habitat home.
“I’ve seen a lot of substandard housing,” Jan says, “but I’ll never forget what I saw that day.”
A ceiling in mid-crumble. Mold in every corner. All four girls sharing one small bedroom. A floor so rotted that the youngest daughter, Kyree, had fallen through it. Another daughter, Nova, spent weeks in the hospital recovering from burns on 37% of her body when a water heater malfunctioned.
After walking through the place, Jan stepped outside.
“I wanted to make it back to my car before I cried, but I didn’t make it,” she says. “It was the only place Deavon could afford and avoid being homeless. We had to help.”
Deavon met the three qualifications for a Habitat home. She had an obvious need. She also had the proper debt-to-income ratio. And she and her daughters were ready to put in the required 250 hours of sweat equity. Over the next 18 months, they would meet one Reynolds Member after another. Some volunteer at job sites to swing hammers, install tile, and paint. Some mentor future homeowners about financial literacy, insurance, escrow, and maintenance. They help at the ReStore, collecting and selling donated items to raise money. And they organize fundraisers, including the Lake Oconee Showcase of Homes, which has brought in more than $1 million so Habitat volunteers can build and rehab as many homes as possible for families like Deavon’s. As of mid-2024, the funds have gone toward the construction of nine new homes and the rehab of five more.
“Whenever I look around our home and see how happy everyone is,” Deavon says, “I think of the volunteers who made it possible.”
The date is forever a holiday in the Janes’ home: December 14, 2021. Deavon pulled into the driveway that day with a trunk full of blankets and pillows for the girls to sleep on until she could save enough money to furnish the bedrooms.
“I was just happy to know we’d have solid floors,” she says.
She was also relieved to know her mortgage would be about the same as the rent in “that other place.” At the front door, she was met by former NFL running back Warrick Dunn, whose charity occasionally comes alongside Habitat to empower families through home ownership, especially those headed by single parents.
“We have a surprise for you,” he said, and then watched Deavon open the door to happiness. There were beds in the bedroom, utensils in the kitchen, furniture in the living room, tools in the shed, a Christmas tree in the corner, and an apple pie on the counter.
“I’m still overwhelmed,” she says. “My first thought was, ‘Wow, for the first time in our lives we have stability.’”
She already sees how stability is allowing the girls to focus on goal setting and goal accomplishing. It’s generational change, in real time.
With the eternal glow of Christmas lights behind her, Deavon opens the front door to walk outside. The sense of gratitude follows her down the porch steps to a cozy seat on the tree swing.
“My girls say they want to stay here forever,” Deavon says, smiling and peacefully swinging, “and that means the world to me.”
