Habitat For Humanity – The Fernandez Family

The Fernandez Family are hard workers who just want to provide a good life for their four daughters,  ranging from 6 to 16. Their home was built in 1955 and needs significant repairs and ADA updates. This family has a 14-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy who is bound to a wheelchair. She cannot speak and has limited use of her arms, but she has the cognition of a 14-year-old and wants to be independent like an ordinary teenager. None of the doorways in the home are wide enough for a wheelchair, causing the mother and father to lift their 14-year-old daughter, Adalee, from the wheelchair at the front door.

Due to the issues inside and outside of the home, the mother and father have resulted in leaving the manual wheelchair inside the car and have resulted in carrying their daughter to and from the house. Adalee must crawl everywhere in the house due to none of the doors being wide enough for a wheelchair. She goes through a pair of pants a month and her knees are extremely calloused due to crawling everywhere in the home. 

Adalee’s mother and father must lift their daughter onto the toilet and into the shower every time she needs to shower or use the restroom. She weighs around 80 lbs which is close to the point where the mother cannot lift their daughter anymore on her own. 

The other three daughters’ rooms are in the basement, where the bathroom plumbing is beyond repair and the electrical needs replaced. Another critical issue is there is currently no emergency exit out of the basement. All six family members of this home use one upstairs bathroom because the underground plumbing for the downstairs bathroom is to the point where if it is used, the family runs the risk of flooding the basement. 

Due to the accessibility, age, and critical infrastructure issues inside and outside of the home, it is more cost-effective to level this home and build a handicap-accessible home in its place. 

Habitat for Humanity of Utah County will raise the Fernandez home in early 2022 and build a home that will meet the needs of Adalee and her family now and for decades to come. We need your help to reach our goal, the entire project will cost $165,000, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. 100% of all donations made on the above link will go directly to Habitat for Humanity of Utah County.