Roxbury High School students just finished their class assignment: building a home for a family in a section of the Morris County town.

The family had a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday morning to celebrate the community’s efforts and the students’ work alongside Morris Habitat for Humanity.

“It was built with love,” said Loretta Radulic, superintendent of Roxbury Public Schools. “There is no other reason that this community came together to work so hard, to offer their time to teach, to volunteer, and to donate.”

The project began in 2016, when the school district had conversations with Roxbury community members about providing education in skill trades for their students.

Frank Caccavale, the teacher of Roxbury High school’s structural design and fabrication course, led 35 students as they began to build the house together in September 2020.

The students worked through most types of weather, including cold temperatures in January and rainy days, to complete the project.

One graduate who worked on the house, Corey Smith, said the experience was rewarding.

“I look at the house now, and I can think of the days we put in the windows, the days of the siding … it’s crazy to look at it done. Because we remember everything from the start,” said Smith, who graduated in June.

He and the other students built the 3-bedroom, 2-bath modular home in two halves in the high school’s parking lot. The house was transported in May to its current lot.

Morris Habitat for Humanity hold a dedication ceremony for a new home built by Roxbury High school students

Samuel Tadesse and Senait Tesfaye, along with their three children, are ready to move in. They will purchase the home for $160,000 in a matter of weeks, according to Blair Schleicher, chief executive officer of Morris Habitat for Humanity.

With a 30-year mortgage, Tadesse and Tesfaye’s monthly payment will be $800, including taxes and insurance. That price is far less than what they currently pay for a 2-bedroom apartment in East Orange, Schleicher said.

New Jersey is the seventh most expensive state in the nation for renters, according to a report from the National Low Income Housing Association. Residents would need an annual income of $59,160 to afford a 2-bedroom apartment at fair-market rent rates in Essex County, where East Orange is located. The median income for Essex County residents is below that, at $43,641, according to the data.

“In the current housing market, it is impossible to put a roof over my family,” Tadesse said to the crowd on Wednesday. “You have no idea how much you are helping us.”

Tesfaye told NJ Advance Media it took her and her family six years to find a home.

“We are so grateful. It’s a blessing,” Tesfaye said.

Her family went through Morris Habitat for Humanity’s process to qualify for a home, according to Loretta Rivers, the organization’s director of family services.

Tesfaye and Tadesse had counseling and training classes for home ownership, paperwork for the mortgage and sweat equity hours at the house and the organization’s furniture store, ReStore, Rivers said.

“This is not a handout. It is a hand up,” Rivers added.

Tadesse and Tesfaye’s three children will attend school in the Roxbury district. Caccavale, the teacher who headed the project, finds that to be one of the most rewarding parts of the job.

“Their kids will eventually come through our high school,” Caccavale told NJ Advance Media in an interview. “So it’s very possible, and we’re really hoping, they will be in my class in a few years … and they will then get to work on a home for another family.”

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Camille Furst may be reached at cfurst@njadvancemedia.com. Find her on Twitter @CamilleFurst.

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