Regina Goynes leads visitors through her new home, including Father Erik Pohlmeier of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church, who blessed the house during dedication ceremonies Sept. 26 in Little Rock. (Dwain Hebda photo)

Father Erik Pohlmeier, pastor of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock, blesses Pope Francis House with holy water during dedication cere-monies Sept. 26. The Habitat for Humanity project was built primarily by Catholic volunteers. (Dwain Hebda photo)

Regina Goynes, homeowner, jokes with the crowd during dedication ceremonies of the Pope Francis House. Goynes, who currently resides in a homeless shelter, said she most looked forward to being able to plant a garden at her new home. (Dwain Hebda photo)

Bill Plunkett, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Pulaski County, presents Regina Goynes with a Bible as a housewarming present during dedication of the Pope Francis House in Little Rock Sept. 26. (Dwain Hebda photo)

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In time for visit, house named for pontiff is dedicated

Little Rock home will be residence for woman who was formerly homeless

Published: October 3, 2015

By Dwain Hebda
Little Rock Correspondent

Dwain Hebda

Father Erik Pohlmeier, pastor of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock, leads attendees, including homeowner Regina Goynes (center), in prayer during the dedication of the Pope Francis House Sept 26.

Dwain Hebda

“Hi! Come on in,” says Regina Goynes at the front door of her new Little Rock home. “Can I give you the tour?”

Inside, there’s nothing but studs, sawdust and daylight streaming in through the windows — even the sodded yard out front has yet to take root. There’s no TV warming up the day’s football game, no beckoning smells from the kitchen, not so much as a single lightbulb. But it’s as close as Goynes, who currently lives in a homeless shelter, has been to all of those things for a long time.

“What I think is, it’s outstanding,” Goynes said. “It takes hearts and guts and strength to even come out here and do a lot of work in and outside of the house.”

Goynes’ three-bedroom house, erected by Habitat for Humanity of Pulaski County and a swarm of primarily Catholic volunteers, was dedicated Sept. 26 by Habitat officials and blessed by Father Erik Pohlmeier of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock. It was hard to tell who stood proudest under a large banner in the yard announcing “The Pope Francis House.”

“When God shows up, everything works.” Bill Plunkett, executive director for Habitat for Humanity of Pulaski County

“(The house) is a result of a confluence of a great deal of effort by many different groups,” said Patrick Gallaher, director of Catholic Charities of Arkansas which coordinated volunteers. “But the biggest thing for me was getting the entire Catholic community in the Little Rock area together to furnish the labor to build this house. And they built it in record time.”

“I think it’s magnificent,” said Bill Plunkett, executive director for Habitat for Humanity of Pulaski County. “We have worked hard to get to this and we just want to honor Pope Francis with this house while he’s here in the country, because he’s made a real difference in a lot of people’s lives.”

Habitat for Humanity helps lower-income people get into their own homes. Through a network of local affiliates, the organization helps coordinate land, materials and construction and the resultant new homes and homeowners breathe life into neighborhoods nationwide. Habitat for Humanity doesn’t give the homes away but helps arrange a mortgage plan for the new owner to buy the property at cost.

Projects run thanks to donations, in the Pope Francis House’s case, from an anonymous out-of-state donor and CHI St. Vincent. But the biggest factor in Habitat for Humanity projects is the reliance on the homeowner’s and volunteers’ labor to build the homes, people like John Hertzog of Knights of Columbus Council 11604 from St. Jude Church in Jacksonville.

“We brought our youth group here and our Ladies of the Knights; we probably had, I imagine, at least 20 Knights in some form or fashion and we basically worked about five weekends,” he said.

Gallaher said every parish in Little Rock hosted a workday, and the enthusiasm spread as far as Benton and North Little Rock. Plunkett noted the many hands not only made light work, it made work scarce some days.

“(The help) has been outstanding,” he said. “We had three or four huge events; I would say the first one probably was 100 to 150 Catholics out here. Honestly, we didn’t have enough work to keep them all busy. We stood up the walls in this house in a new record, two hours and 45 minutes; normally it’s three hours and 30 minutes.”

Another Jacksonville Knight, Greg Deen, said the project was rewarding on many levels, first to see the response from his fellow parishioners and second, to see the overall showing by Catholics from different parishes. The visibility of the project showed the neighborhood and all who passed by exactly what the Church was all about.

“I think people realized that the Catholic Church is not a closed-set community,” Deen said. “Some people think charity is just moving money from one hand to the other. A lot of us have time but don’t have money and here’s where we give a lot of our time. And that’s what charity is really all about; it’s just giving time and helping people out.”

With Pope Francis House moving toward a December completion, attention turns to building the CHI St. Vincent House, about to get underway in Maumelle. Gallaher said he’d like to get another project off the ground next year and given the Pope Francis House experience, Plunkett is all for it.

“This is really my first opportunity to work closely with the diocese and it’s been a real blessing,” he said. “When God shows up, everything works.”

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