Here is an article about a new Habitat for Humanity project in Lancaster City. The building is scheduled to start in May. The article is from Lancasteronline.com written by Stephen Kopfinger.
A few more people are going to call the city home. Literally, as in, their own house.
Lancaster Area Habitat for Humanity announced last week that 19 residential building lots at Fairview Avenue and Seymour Street, in Lancaster's southwest end, were purchased from the Preferred Partners real estate group, for $475,000 Wednesday.
"We're absolutely delighted … we're taking a leap of faith," said Stacie Reidenbaugh, executive director of Habitat, Saturday. She said the project, consisting of townhouses clustered in a quad on a 1.3-acre parcel of land, will enable "more people the opportunity to afford a decent home" in the city.
The Habitat project is the first since last year, when four homes in the 700 block of South Queen Street were dedicated, replacing a row of five homes destroyed by fire in 2002. Four more homes in that effort, facing South Beaver Street, are expected to be finished by April.
It all represents confidence in a community, even as bad news about foreclosures dominates the news.
"Habitat for Humanity certainly advances one of our strategic objectives" — namely, affordable home ownership — said Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray by phone Saturday. The mayor's Strategic Plan for the City has established a goal of developing 300 new market-rate, owner-occupied homes by 2011, according to Habitat. Reidenbaugh noted that the Fairview Avenue and Seymour Street neighborhood, in the vicinity of Price Elementary School, is largely owner-occupied.
Construction of the first four homes is targeted to begin in May. Each home will have off-street parking, accessible from a private alley behind the houses, according to Habitat. The project will be enacted over the next two years.
Habitat is seeking grants and gifts from the community to support the cost of the land purchase and construction of the homes. Habitat has raised $339,000 for the Fairview project to date, according to the organization.
Two homes are sponsored by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and the local Lutheran congregations through the Thrivent Builds grant program. The third home is sponsored by the Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors.
"Despite the economy, we're confident the community [will] support us, as it has in the past," Reidenbaugh said.
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