Habitat for Humanity makes progress on new homes
Jun. 5—Work is progressing on two houses Habitat for Humanity of Otsego County volunteers are building simultaneously this summer.
It's the first time the nonprofit housing organization has taken on two builds at once.
Community Bank N.A. presented a $1,000 check Monday to Habitat for Humanity of Otsego County President Jerry Blechman at the site of the ongoing project on McFarland Road.
Michael Walling, Community Bank vice president and senior district manager, said Monday that he believes the cause is worth supporting.
The 18-acre site is located off state Route 205 in the town of Oneonta, about one mile north of the intersection with state Route 23.
The property, originally intended to be a gravel mine, was purchased and donated by a Habitat board director who wishes to remain anonymous, Blechman said.
The lot was subdivided into nine two-acre parcels. Each one-story house is slated to have three bedrooms, one bathroom, a basement the size of the footprint of the house and a shed in the backyard.
"These are meant to be simple and decent homes," Blechman said.
Thomas Collier, building supervisor, said the first four houses are complete and three are occupied.
The fifth house is nearing completion, the sixth and seventh houses are in progress and the eighth and ninth haven't been started yet, he said.
Work on the two houses in progress began in April when the foundations were poured.
A team of local Habitat volunteers works on Thursdays and Saturdays.
They've done all of this work up until this point, Collier said, but for the next two weeks they'll have the help of a group of "Care-A-Vanners" — people who travel the country volunteering for Habitat.
The group includes volunteers from Texas, Kentucky and Vermont.
Blechman said the houses are due to be completed next spring, which works out well with the timeline for the families who will live in them. Habitat calls the families it works with "partners."
"We had a very successful application period last year," Blechman said, "and we admitted with three new partner families."
It will take some time before those families are ready to move in. It takes about two years from the time an applicant is accepted to the home's completion, according to the organization.
Part of the eligibility requirements for partners buying a Habitat house is 250 hours of volunteering with Habitat per adult in the house, capped at 500 hours, and completion of a first-time homebuyers course, so that takes time, Blechman said.
Applicants must be living or working in Otsego County for at least one year, meet income and credit guidelines and currently live in unsuitable and/or unaffordable housing.
Habitat for Humanity of Otsego County was established in 1989 as the Northern Susquehanna Habitat affiliate, which divided by county in 1996, and partners with collegiate chapters at SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College, according to the organization's website.
