A Single Mom’s Path to Homeowning Success

By Veleka Finch

“Mama did it!”

Phlonda Davis imagined her three children speaking those very three words whenever she encountered a barrier on the road to owning a home.

The thought of hearing those words re-directed Davis each time.

Away from the unaffordable down payment requirements for a traditional mortgage.

Away from savings-robbing, never-ending rent hikes at the apartment she was leasing.

Toward the fastest route to homeownership for her family – Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville.

And Regions Bank provided Davis a lift to get there – in the form of a grant to Habitat, expressly for the construction of a new home for Davis, a single mother who works as a nonprofit human resources director.

“In Nashville, we have an affordable housing crisis,” said Lethia Mann, a community development manager for Regions Bank. “Our partnership with Habitat helps us to provide new, quality housing that’s affordable for the families who work every day in this community.”

Mann has served on Habitat Nashville’s board for several years. The role offers her a front-row view of the organization’s impact.

This is a step that’s going to change the trajectory of generations to come in their families.

Lethia Mann, community development manager for Regions Bank

“We get to meet the families. We visit them in their homes. We meet their children,” Mann said.

“It’s not just about getting a home and having a mortgage, but it’s providing budgeting education so they can stay in the home for years and pass it on,” Mann added. “They know this is a step that’s going to change the trajectory of generations to come in their families.”

Mann and other Regions associates shared in Davis’s ride toward homeownership through a day of hands-on sweat equity to help build her home. It was the Nashville team’s 18^th year participating in a build; the first time a build was combined with a targeted homeowner grant.

Davis thanked the associates for helping see her to her ultimate destination – a doorstep of her own.

“They can be anywhere in the world, helping anybody, or doing anything,” Davis marveled. “But they chose to be out here with me.”

The experience has inspired Davis to give back. She plans to volunteer to help her new neighbors build their Habitat homes. The community will include single dwellings for nearly sixty families once it’s complete.

Davis hopes the following words will now resonate for her three children on their life journeys: “No matter where you come from, how you grew up, no matter the odds and obstacles that are stacked against you, you can do it,” Davis said.

Because their mama did it.

Learn more about Phlonda Davis’s home build and how Regions Bank supports Habitat Nashville through the video above.