KNOXVILLE, Tennessee — Millions of Americans struggle to find affordable housing.
Knoxville is no exception.
City leaders and non-profits say there is a a critical need for more affordable housing.
Some families have experienced that struggle first hand.
"I still don't believe that it's my house," Miss Williams said.
Williams and her family spent their first Christmas in her Habitat for Humanity home. Williams is the first one in her family to own a home.
"It's such a blessing to have something that's yours, and that I worked so hard for and that I built," Williams said.
Williams has been a certified nursing assistant for 17 years. She is raising her cousin, sister, niece and grand-niece. Eventually, she'll have to take care of her mother.
Williams and her family used to live in a two-bedroom apartment in Knoxville, but she says it was too small and expensive. She said she was also concerned about safety in the area.
So she turned to Habitat for Humanity.
"I had three goals, three goals: to get my health right, make sure my family stayed together, and foundation," Williams said. "I mean, because without foundation you have nothing, you can't keep building nothing on quicksand, and that's how I felt."
Williams is not alone.
Housing and Urban Development says affordable housing means 30 percent or less of a household's income.
The agency says the 2019 fair market rent for a two bedroom unit in Knoxville is $855.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a minimum wage worker in Tennessee would have to work 71 hours each week to afford a one-bedroom unit at fair market rent.
The city of Knoxville renewed $2.5 million for its Affordable Housing Development Fund in 2018.
That money has helped complete 34 units and start building 225 units in 2018. The city expects to break ground on 300 more units in 2019.
Across town, Tanisha Roebuck also got help from Habitat.
Roebuck is a single mother of three kids. Her son, Jaden, has special needs, and finding and paying for a place that could accommodate him seemed impossible.
"When I thought there was no way I was going to be a homeowner, no way I could live somewhere safe, no way that I could live somewhere so nice, they really made a way, and they really helped me out," Roebuck said.