Homeward bound
Dewey Perault with his daughters Amara and Claire at the site of their new home.
Photo by Thomas Kachadurian/Habitat Grand Traverse Region
By Barb Mosher, Contributing Writer
Dewey Perault’s phone rang on May 31, the day before his 32nd birthday. The voice on the other end delivered news of a gift he could never have imagined: He and his two daughters would be recipients of a brand-new house in Williamsburg as a partner family of Habitat for Humanity - Grand Traverse Region.
“It felt like I had just won the Powerball,” Perault said, referring to the Michigan lottery game. “No joke. It’s crazy. It was the same exact feeling as if I got all the matching numbers.”
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that builds homes around the world in partnership with families in need of an affordable, decent place to live, adding to the foundation of strong and stable communities. Perault will work alongside local volunteers in the construction process and will pay an affordable mortgage on the completed house.
“We prepare people to own a home,” said Thomas Kachadurian, communications and marketing director for Habitat GTR. “We make sure it’s safe, comfortable, good-looking, and durable. Our homeowners work hard to get a home. They’re so glad to own a home, so committed to their homes, it’s just unbelievable. They become great neighbors and community members who want to help others.”
Perault is a 2006 graduate of Mancelona High School. He entered the U.S. Marine Corps a year later, spending four years as a motor transport operator including a deployment to Afghanistan in 2010. After his honorable discharge, he returned to northern Michigan and began taking aviation classes at Northwestern Michigan College, obtaining private and instrument ratings.
Perault hopes to complete a commercial pilot rating eventually, but as a single father his time is consumed with providing and caring for Amara, 8, and Claire, 4. Their home for the last year has been a two-bedroom subsidized apartment so cramped that many of their belongings are tucked away in rented storage space. Five mornings a week, he drives the girls more than 20 miles to daycare in South Boardman, continuing on to his shipping and receiving job at Turtle Creek Casino in Williamsburg. He reverses the hour-long commute at the end of the day.
When they move into their new home, Perault will be a mile and a half from work. He hopes to find affordable day care nearby to further reduce time in the car. “That long drive, and then cooking a meal at the end of the day, it’s a lot,” he said. “I’m looking forward to having much more time at home with the kids.”
A shortage of affordable housing in northwest Michigan makes home ownership an unattainable goal for many. Perault is representative of area residents who struggle to make ends meet even while working full-time, quickly discovering that the basic costs of living here leave little if any room in the budget for saving toward a down payment on a home.
“Having our own place is really important to me, but I didn’t want to be house-broke, living way outside of my means just to have a house,” he said. “I was looking at houses that were going to need a lot of work, but being a single dad, I didn’t know if I could swing the maintenance.”
Last fall, a friend mentioned Habitat for Humanity as a possible solution. A month later, an employee relations representative at the casino forwarded him an email from Habitat GTR seeking applicants. “That was confirmation I was mindful of,” Perault said. “I went to an informational meeting in January and decided to apply and see where it would go.”
“Dewey met our criteria because he’s been meeting his financial obligations, and he could keep doing that but never be able to save enough to buy a house,” Kachadurian explained. “Habitat for Humanity is that little catalyst that pushes someone from a day laborer barely getting by to a person with self-confidence and a sense of personal value who can start building a future.”
Perault has already started working toward the minimum 275 hours of “sweat equity” Habitat requires of its partners, helping out on weekends at the organization’s ReStore, a nonprofit home improvement store and donation center in Traverse City. Once the foundation of his home is laid, he’ll also join with volunteers and sub-contractors in piecing together not just his house but his dream-come-true.
“To stand there and see the layout plans and where it will sit on the lot was surreal,” Perault said of last week’s groundbreaking ceremony. “I’m looking forward to working on the house. I’m going to be learning everything I can as I go. I’m excited for that. I’m all about doing new things.”
The project is scheduled to be completed by mid-to-late December. Envisioning Christmas with his daughters in their very own home brings a smile to Perault’s face, as does the realization that he can have a dog again — his beloved German Shepherd, Mukagees, died in 2015 — and that his girls will grow up surrounded by towering pines with a creek nearby to explore with neighborhood friends.
“I’ve moved three times with them,” he said. “This will be their fourth and final move. I feel a lot happier about our future. It’s not uncertain at all anymore.”
Dewey Perault’s phone rang on May 31, the day before his 32nd birthday. The voice on the other end delivered news of a gift he could never have imagined: He and his two daughters would be recipients of a brand-new house in Williamsburg as a partner family of Habitat for Humanity - Grand Traverse Region.
“It felt like I had just won the Powerball,” Perault said, referring to the Michigan lottery game. “No joke. It’s crazy. It was the same exact feeling as if I got all the matching numbers.”
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that builds homes around the world in partnership with families in need of an affordable, decent place to live, adding to the foundation of strong and stable communities. Perault will work alongside local volunteers in the construction process and will pay an affordable mortgage on the completed house.
“We prepare people to own a home,” said Thomas Kachadurian, communications and marketing director for Habitat GTR. “We make sure it’s safe, comfortable, good-looking, and durable. Our homeowners work hard to get a home. They’re so glad to own a home, so committed to their homes, it’s just unbelievable. They become great neighbors and community members who want to help others.”
Perault is a 2006 graduate of Mancelona High School. He entered the U.S. Marine Corps a year later, spending four years as a motor transport operator including a deployment to Afghanistan in 2010. After his honorable discharge, he returned to northern Michigan and began taking aviation classes at Northwestern Michigan College, obtaining private and instrument ratings.
Perault hopes to complete a commercial pilot rating eventually, but as a single father his time is consumed with providing and caring for Amara, 8, and Claire, 4. Their home for the last year has been a two-bedroom subsidized apartment so cramped that many of their belongings are tucked away in rented storage space. Five mornings a week, he drives the girls more than 20 miles to daycare in South Boardman, continuing on to his shipping and receiving job at Turtle Creek Casino in Williamsburg. He reverses the hour-long commute at the end of the day.
When they move into their new home, Perault will be a mile and a half from work. He hopes to find affordable day care nearby to further reduce time in the car. “That long drive, and then cooking a meal at the end of the day, it’s a lot,” he said. “I’m looking forward to having much more time at home with the kids.”
A shortage of affordable housing in northwest Michigan makes home ownership an unattainable goal for many. Perault is representative of area residents who struggle to make ends meet even while working full-time, quickly discovering that the basic costs of living here leave little if any room in the budget for saving toward a down payment on a home.
“Having our own place is really important to me, but I didn’t want to be house-broke, living way outside of my means just to have a house,” he said. “I was looking at houses that were going to need a lot of work, but being a single dad, I didn’t know if I could swing the maintenance.”
Last fall, a friend mentioned Habitat for Humanity as a possible solution. A month later, an employee relations representative at the casino forwarded him an email from Habitat GTR seeking applicants. “That was confirmation I was mindful of,” Perault said. “I went to an informational meeting in January and decided to apply and see where it would go.”
“Dewey met our criteria because he’s been meeting his financial obligations, and he could keep doing that but never be able to save enough to buy a house,” Kachadurian explained. “Habitat for Humanity is that little catalyst that pushes someone from a day laborer barely getting by to a person with self-confidence and a sense of personal value who can start building a future.”
Perault has already started working toward the minimum 275 hours of “sweat equity” Habitat requires of its partners, helping out on weekends at the organization’s ReStore, a nonprofit home improvement store and donation center in Traverse City. Once the foundation of his home is laid, he’ll also join with volunteers and sub-contractors in piecing together not just his house but his dream-come-true.
“To stand there and see the layout plans and where it will sit on the lot was surreal,” Perault said of last week’s groundbreaking ceremony. “I’m looking forward to working on the house. I’m going to be learning everything I can as I go. I’m excited for that. I’m all about doing new things.”
The project is scheduled to be completed by mid-to-late December. Envisioning Christmas with his daughters in their very own home brings a smile to Perault’s face, as does the realization that he can have a dog again — his beloved German Shepherd, Mukagees, died in 2015 — and that his girls will grow up surrounded by towering pines with a creek nearby to explore with neighborhood friends.
“I’ve moved three times with them,” he said. “This will be their fourth and final move. I feel a lot happier about our future. It’s not uncertain at all anymore.”
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