A year and a half after a family moved into the first Habitat for Humanity home in Howard County, the nonprofit group plans to build two more affordable houses.
“People really need to be aware that there is a need” for affordable housing, said Debbie Crone, who lives with her husband and eight of her nine children in the first Habitat home built in Columbia.
“One of the struggles I know that Howard County has is that a great majority of people are wealthy, but there are a lot who are not,” Crone said.
Habitat for Humanity of Howard County recently purchased a third of an acre of land on Wye Avenue off of Route 1 in Jessup, said David Roura, Habitat?s executive director.
The land was purchased using a grant from Citizens Bank and loans from Howard Bank and the Columbia Foundation.
The Columbia Foundation provided a $50,000 below-market loan, meaning it has a lower than market interest rate. This loan, established to support affordable housing, has been recycled three times, said Barbara Lawson, president and CEO of the Columbia Foundation.
“At times it makes more sense to make a loan rather than a grant,” Lawson said. “You keep getting to use the money.”
Construction will likely begin next year, and the homes will then be sold to residents with interest-free loans, Roura said.
“That is going to be a significant boost to our organization and to enhancing awareness within Howard County of Habitat and our mission, which is building affordable housing in the county,” Roura said.
The county group, which was established as an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International in 2000, also receives funds from fundraising efforts and donations, Roura said.
The Crone family, who moved in April 2005, was able to leave their overcrowded duplex in Elkridge where all five daughters shared a room.
“I think it?s good that they are expanding,” Crone said of Habitat, adding that in their former apartment complex, they saw a lot of families living in overcrowded conditions. “Unless you are around it and see it, you are not aware of it.”
Getting a home
A selection committee chooses families to live in homes built by Habitat for Humanity of Howard County, based on three criteria:
» The family has lived or worked in Howard County for at least one year.
» The family income is 30 percent to 50 percent of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development?s median income for the county, which is $72,800.
» They family must have a housing need, such as overcrowding, substandard housing or homelessness.
Source: Habitat for Humanity of Howard County
