|
Habitat for Humanity to build in Needham
There's no place like home, but in Needham, with an average single-family selling price of $550,000 to $600,000, they're increasingly hard to come by for a family starting out.
But Habitat for Humanity, a Georgia-based, religious nonprofit that's been making forays into New England since 1987, is trying to change that.
In Needham, Greater Boston Habitat staff and board members gathered at the corner of Brookline and Bancroft streets last week, with volunteers from the Needham Interfaith Group, which has spearheaded the local effort, to unveil the site of an affordable house the will build here next spring.
The house will be "a modest two-story" of approximately 1,300 square feet, with three bedrooms, "a nice screened porch," and 1 1/2 baths, according to engineer and project volunteer Dave Johnson of Medfield's Church of the Advent. It will be located across from the Mitchell School.
It will sell for $150,000 to $175,000 to a family a local committee will select based on financial need (with ability to repay a mortgage) and current residence in substandard housing, with preference given to those currently living or working in Needham. The balance of the home's actual cost will be subsidized by $200,000 in donated funds, materials and services.
It took four years to get to the point of naming a site, volunteers said, because of the difficulty in finding land in Needham and in getting the permits needed to build.
For-profit builders, who sometimes tear down Needham homes to have the opportunity to build here, had rejected the 12,000-square-foot vacant lot because it's mostly ledge, said First Parish-Unitarian Minister John Buehrens.
At the Oct. 6 site unveiling, about 30 organizers spoke of the small, but symbolic step the new home will take toward fulfilling one family's basic need.
"This is a sacred, sacred endeavor. We are very glad to be part of this journey," said Rabbi Jay Perlman of Temple Beth Shalom.
Greater Boston Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Lark Palermo said she'd consider herself lucky if she could get "just a smidgeon of the effort" the Needham project has gotten, everywhere.
Noting that the rocky site will make building the new home expensive, she praised Dedham Savings Bank, which recently donated $50,000 toward the effort.
"We'd be waiting a lot longer," she said, without that boost. With the bank's donation, fund raising totals $145,000 of the $200,000 needed.
"It's very hard to get these projects done in suburban communities, so we really are delighted to make it happen here," said Dedham Savings President Bill Gothorpe.
Needham Interfaith Group Co-Chairman Tim McCleary said the bank has long supported Greater Boston Habitat.
"We set up a meeting to discuss a corporate partnership in June. Their board met after that," and chose to fund the Needham project, he said.
Volunteers have been raising money almost since the project's genesis in Needham; besides the bank's donation, $95,000 has come in from church dinners, private-home fund-raisers, appeals to personal friends and donations made in memory of Bill Edge, the husband of project Co-Chairwoman Rev. Caroline Edge (pastor at Carter United Methodist Church); and Greg Gatto, the son of local affordable housing advocate and volunteer Rich Gatto, both of whom passed away in recent years.
Children at Needham temples and churches contributing to the project have also designed greeting cards with drawings of their vision of "home," which will go on sale at local houses of worship, and possibly some local shops, this month.
There's $55,000 left to go to reach the fund-raising goal. To date, $20,000 has been spent to purchase the town-owned lot. McCleary said the goal is to have 90 percent of the balance by spring, and the rest by the time a new family moves in sometime in January 2008.
"I am very pleased with where we're at," he said.
Cited as a motivating force by others, he said that what motivates him, in turn, is "the ability to help somebody that wouldn't have an opportunity, and to build stronger bonds within the community."
In fact, he said, the Interfaith Group, was founded just after Sept. 11, 2001, with that very mission in mind.
Amy Wyeth can be reached at awyeth@cnc.com.
|
|
