All About Family

ASHEBORO — The 50th Randolph Habitat house turned out to be the largest at five bedrooms and three baths.

Jacqua and Malcolm Purcell moved their nine children into the latest Habitat for Humanity home on Aug. 1. That ended seven years of planning, about a year of building and months of serious health issues for Jacqua. “It’s such a blessing to get the house built,” she said. “It’s our forever home and the kids now have enough space. We don’t have to worry.”

The Purcells have four children by birth and have taken in five others related to them through guardianship. But before moving into their new home, they were crammed into a rental house with just three bedrooms.

The family was in public housing until 2018 when their income became too high to qualify. That’s the year they met Dremia Meyer of Habitat for Humanity of Randolph County. She told them about the program of providing homes for low-income families through “sweat equity.”

“We applied and started the program,” Jacqua said. “In 2019, we got approved and put on the waiting list. We were doing community hours (or sweat equity, a requirement by which applicants help build Habitat homes. Those over the age of 18 must do a minimum of 250 hours.).”

In 2020, the COVID19 pandemic slowed everything down, Jacqua said. “It was a waiting game but we stayed in contact. We had to rent a house with five bedrooms for a while then in 2023 we ended up downgrading to a threebedroom house.”

Meanwhile, the Purcells took classes with Habitat that taught them good budgeting habits and what to expect as homeowners. Also, their help building other Habitat homes was teaching them construction skills.

That year — 2023 — brought health problems for Jacqua, who spent time in the hospital and about six months unable to work. Habitat, again, came to the rescue.

“Habitat was calling every day to see if we needed anything,” she said. “They gave us a gift card to buy whatever we needed. They were really there way more than they had to be. They treat you like family.”

Then in 2024, Meyer called with good news — “We’ve got an address,” she told the Purcells. They were able to start building their home, even as inclement weather again slowed down the progress. 

“Waiting to build feels long but (actual) building goes by faster,” Jacqua said. “It was a great experience. And they teach you how to live before you start living in the house. We learned a lot through Habitat.”

With the knowledge the Purcells received from the actual building process, Jacqua said she and Malcolm are looking at a new project — constructing their own outbuilding.

“Habitat has great people,” she said. “Everybody was good to us. The volunteers are God’s angels. We went through a lot and everybody was there for us.”

Spring Break of 2025 brought the annual week of University of Georgia students to help with the Habitat homes in Randolph County. Jacqua remembers them with delight.

“The Georgia kids were great,” she said. “They were so young and so hands-on. They were amazing and actually wanted to volunteer. They complained when it rained and they couldn’t work.”

The UGA students were helpful to the Purcells in another way, Jacqua said. “They were good for our kids to talk to them about college. They were a positive influence.”

Now that the Purcells are in their new home, with several beds provided by the local chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, they don’t see their relationship with Habitat for Humanity ending any time soon.

“We definitely plan to help, to volunteer with Habitat,” Jacqua said. “A lot of families helped us and we want to help others. We carry everything we learned — budgeting, being homeowners and the importance to have a savings account.

“Without Habitat, we would probably still be renting. We wouldn’t have the motivation, not comfortable enough to buy a house. Habitat gave us the comfort that we could do it. It’s a big step, even with Habitat. But we got a really good deal on the house.”

While the Purcells were blessed by Habitat, Habitat will reap the blessings of having a large family to count on. 

They’re both winners with the prospect of creating more winners in the future.

See how a local golf tournament created by Sam Ramsey has helped build almost 40% of Randolph's habitat houses.