Five of six families have been chosen for the six Habitat for
Humanity homes, but state funding holdups may delay construction
unless the nonprofit can secure funds from elsewhere, such as the
city.
Five of six families have been chosen for the six Habitat for Humanity homes, but state funding holdups may delay construction unless the nonprofit can secure funds from elsewhere, such as the city.
Four of the families were contacted Monday and met during a kickoff meeting. Then Tuesday, the fifth family was selected. Habitat’s selection committee still has one family and an alternate to select, according to Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Jennifer Simmons.
“It felt wonderful and reassuring to know that we are going to be one of the families directly involved in the Habitat project here in Morgan Hill,” said Elaine Hays, whose family of seven were selected to purchase the four-bedroom home. The family currently lives in a four-bedroom apartment in Jasmine Square. “We were all excited to meet each other and to begin the process of partnering with the city and with Habitat to make our neighborhood of six homes a reality.”
Simmons declined to release the names of the other four selected families.
Simmons said Habitat has secured $500,000 in California CalHome funds for the project, but the state budget fiasco has delayed their receipt of this money.
A planned groundbreaking for this month has been changed to a fall “wall raising,” too, Simmons said. Usually, Habitat hosts a groundbreaking ceremony involving the community and the soon-to-be homeowners that is followed by months of infrastructure construction before the actual work begins. Families can build “sweat equity” by volunteering hundreds of hours to construct their home through a team of their friends and family, Simmons said.
“This work is not usually done by volunteers and we lose a bit of momentum by having the groundbreaking and then waiting several months for volunteers to start on the site,” Simmons explained.
The six homes will be built on Cory Drive off San Pedro Avenue and will sell for an average of $200,000. The families will buy the homes from Habitat with no interest. Because families buy directly from Habitat, they must first endure a strenuous application process.
“The way we look at home ownership is that we don’t just sell the home to the family and walk away,” she said. “It’s really a 30-year partnership.”
In December, the Morgan Hill City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency Board, approved Habitat’s request for upping the city’s loan from $560,000 to $760,000 to include green building design elements, like solar panels, and to include additional expenses related to the city’s design requests.
Delays aren’t new to this project, which is the first Habitat project in Morgan Hill.
Erwin Ordonez said Habitat received a loan from the city in 2005 to acquire the property. City-required redesigns took up some time, Ordonez said, but in February 2008, the Morgan Hill Planning Commission approved the final design of the homes, which include one two-bedroom home, four three-bedroom homes and one four-bedroom home.
