Family Triumph: Journey to a New Beginning with First Responders Home

Dionte and Denise and their five children, ages 4 to 12, are thrilled to be receiving the First Responders Habitat home. It is the culmination of a lot of hard work and perseverance in both life and love.

Dionte and Denise have known each other since high school in Washington, D.C. and were married on July 20, 2011. But over time, they grew apart and in 2019, they divorced.

With the onset of COVID, in-person school was canceled, and handling five children at home was more than Denise could manage by herself. Dionte began going over to the home more to help out. And like millions of other Americans, both lost their jobs during that time.



The family all worked together to make it through the worst – and Dionte and Denise ended up falling in love again. “A lot of things change, attitudes change, and sometimes you have to fall in love again to know it’s really worth trying and not giving up,” Dionte said. They remarried on July 20, 2021 – 10 years to the date of their original wedding.

The Epps have moved between the D.C. area and Winston-Salem a couple of times before and have decided to make their permanent home here. Denise’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ford, were among the first Habitat families to move onto North Cherry Street when the Neighborhood Revitalization program began.

Dionte and Denise entered the Habitat program themselves in late 2022. Dionte, who drives a bus for the city, sometimes works 65 to 70 hours a week, so Denise attended most of the Habitat classes on the couple’s behalf, while Dionte did most of the volunteer hours. They have enjoyed learning more about managing finances in the Habitat classes and actually moved to a smaller apartment for a while in order to save up more money. Dionte is now working on establishing a family trust.

“I encourage anybody and everybody who qualifies to get in the Habitat program and stay committed to it, no matter what, because it is worth it. There are times you want to give up, but there are some really good people at Habitat who really want you to succeed and be in that house. They have really supported our family.”