Volunteers from Tuscaloosa Mercedes Plant Raise Walls on 12th Habitat House

A volunteer team made mostly of employees from the Mercedes Benz U.S. International Plant was in west Tuscaloosa Tuesday morning to raise the walls on a new Habitat for Humanity house in their Milestone Neighborhood.

This is hardly the group's first rodeo, either - this will be the twelfth Habitat home they've partnered on.

The collaboration began in 2014, as the local Habitat crew began building new homes on Juanita Drive in Alberta after an EF-4 tornado leveled so much of the residential area there in April 2011.

Ellen Potts, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Tuscaloosa, said MBUSI sponsored a house there and has come back for another every year since then. They have already committed to sponsoring more in 2026 and 2027.

Dwight Moore, an operations manager at MBUSI, was on site Tuesday morning and said he's had a hand in many of their previous Habitat homes as well.

"It's obvious the company is dedicated to the community. They show that in what they do out here and through many other things; this is just one of them. From my side, I'm just fortunate to be a part of it all," Moore said. "We meet the folks who are going to get these houses, and that's always rewarding. You get to hear their stories, they're so dedicated and they're spending their time working alongside you. I've actually been to a dedication before - that was quite special. Handing over the keys sounds symbolic, but on that day, it's real."

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A few months from now, the finished home in Habitat's Milestone Neighborhood will have its dedication day, and crews will hand the keys to Tiffany Moore, a mother of two who works as support staff at Tuscaloosa's Central High School.

She was on site Tuesday, working with her son Jaden, a senior who will graduate in May and go play football at ASU in Montgomery. Moore and her younger daughter will share the space while he's away.

"I always wanted to own a home. It's always been my dream, but I never knew when it would actually happen," Moore said. "I've always been in an apartment ever since I was in college, but I knew one day I was going to own a home, I just don't know what the process is going to look like or how I'm going to get it."

The answer was Habitat. Contrary to popular misconception, the nonprofit does not give away "free" homes, but they are generally built at no cost to the eventual homeowner thanks to sponsorships from groups like MBUSI, Warrior Met Coal and the Nick's Kids Foundation.

Habitat Homeowners like Moore then purchase the homes at fair market price through a 30-year, zero-interest mortgage they pay monthly, just like anyone else. That's a sweet deal for those who qualify, but hardly "free."

They also are tasked with putting in sweat equity and putting in no less than 200 hours of labor alongside the volunteers in the build team.

"I can tell people these houses are not given to you. You have to work for them," Moore said.

Their home will be one of 32 in the Habitat's Milestone Neighborhood, which is growing by a few homes each year in west Tuscaloosa. Work will begin soon on homes in their nearby Westgrove Neighborhood, which will have space for another 25.

All told, Habitat Tuscaloosa is committed to building 75 new homes in West Tuscaloosa by the end of the decade to combat the affordable housing crisis the community is facing.

"There is so little affordable housing, and what will happen is a family will get an apartment, it's affordable, and then when the lease is up, the landlord will go up on the rent or maybe the the property will sell and the new owner decide to make it student housing or will knock it down and and build something different," Habitat's executive director Ellen Potts said. "That that creates instability for families."

"These homes, if you pay your mortgage, you're staying there for the rest of your life. That creates stability in families, especially families with children. And it creates a community, as all of these people work on each other's houses, they get to know each other before they ever move in."

With the frame raised on Tuesday and a crew of Mercedes employees volunteering every day to work on it, Potts said the Moores should get the keys to their new home in June and the Milestone Neighborhood will grow by another household.

For more coverage of news in west Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.