With Safety Harbor's gift of land, Habitat for Humanity can prepare to build a house for a family of 11 from Kosovo.
By MEGAN SCOTT
Published August 6, 2004
SAFETY HARBOR - For Kosovo native Heset Xhokli, his wife and their nine children, coming home means cramming into a three-bedroom rental house.
But sometime next year, thanks to Habitat for Humanity and some creative thinking by city officials, the Xhokli family should have plenty of room in a five-bedroom house they will call their own.
The family had been looking for a larger home in Safety Harbor but couldn't find one they could afford. And they wanted to stay in Safety Harbor so the children wouldn't have to change schools.
Then they heard about Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for low-income families. They were accepted into the program last year.
But there was no vacant land in North Pinellas that the organization could afford to purchase.
Enter Safety Harbor's leaders.
The city owned a vacant property on Sixth Avenue N it was trying to sell. When bids came in too low, city commissioners decided to do something to help Habitat for Humanity's new North Pinellas office. On Monday, they voted to donate the land to Habitat for the Xhoklis' new home.
The approval means the nonprofit organization can begin constructing the house as soon as permitting and design work are completed.
"I come from a family of nine," Commissioner Neil Brickfield said. "I spent a summer with five of my brothers and sisters, a dog and two cats in a two-bedroom apartment. I know the feeling of a big family crammed in a small space."
Heset Xhokli and his family came to Safety Harbor from Kosovo four years ago. In their rental house, four of the children slept in one bedroom, five in the other.
Xhokli works at Mease Countryside Hospital as a phlebotomist. His wife stays home. The children range in age from 7 to 20 - eight girls and one boy.
"In my house, I'm never alone," said daughter Indira Xhokli, 19, who is entering St. Petersburg College. "If I was alone, it would be really boring for me."
The family heard about Habitat for Humanity through a friend.
Pinellas Habitat for Humanity has had an office in North Pinellas for only about a year. Before, families had to go through the organization's Clearwater or Largo branches. The organization serves Tarpon Springs, Oldsmar, Palm Harbor, Ozona, Dunedin and Safety Harbor.
Besides the Xhoklis, there are seven other families in the area waiting for homes, said vice chair Cynthia Earle.
"We're having a terrible time, as is everyone with Habitat," Earle said. "We'll take donations. We'll take lowered prices. We are desperate, absolutely desperate for the land."
Earle said she almost asked Safety Harbor commissioners on Monday if they had any other parcels of land. But she didn't want to sound too anxious.
The Xhoklis' home should be ready next year.
"We're really happy to have a property in Safety Harbor for this family," said Barbara Inman, executive director of Pinellas Habitat for Humanity. "Getting the land is always the hardest part."
Meanwhile, the North Pinellas organization has found a home at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Dunedin. It was operating out of Church on the Bayou Presbyterian Church in Tarpon Springs, but the space was too small, she said.
The house for the Xhoklis will be the biggest Habitat for Humanity has built in North Pinellas. Inman said the organization could definitely use some more volunteers to help.
"We always need volunteers," she said. "Once we start in Safety Harbor, we'll need people there, too."
