The improvements were made Tuesday thanks to a $15,000 grant Golden Crescent Habitat for Humanity received from the Texas State Affordable Housing Corp.
One of the homeowners was Eva Prince, 73. She has lived in her modest home on the corner of Avenue I and 11th Street in Shiner for 35 years. A retired librarian, she spends much of her fixed income on necessities and health care costs. She said she wouldn't have been able to afford the improvements on her own.
Prince is legally blind and has difficulty walking, so a wooden ramp with hand rails was installed in the front of her home.
Habitat partnered with Saints Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church's Catholic Heart Work Camp to create the project "A Brush With Kindness."
Area teens signed up to volunteer for the home improvement projects, hoping to be "the visible face to the invisible God," according to Habitat board member and project organizer Laura Kaspar.
Kaspar reached out to area churches, the senior center and the police department to find homeowners who needed help to improve their homes but could not afford it.
The front steps were a source of anxiety for Prince, who said, "I was always scared to go down those stairs," adding that the ramp "made me feel better."
While visiting with the teenagers and organizers on her porch, she expressed her gratitude to the volunteers saying, "God's got my back."
Claire Patek, 17, said this was her first time volunteering to help homeowners and she was excited "to get to help people in Shiner," despite recovering from knee surgery.
Ryan Malinovsky, 16, worked to dig post holes earlier in the day and then drill floor boards to support the ramp.
He said he enjoyed getting to see the result of his work.
Silvia Mayberry, 65, Prince's sister and caregiver, said it was "so amazing that these young people are so enthused."
Later, she said, the teens "stepped in and stepped up."