Habitat for Humanity to purchase Wilden Avenue lot

Jul. 14—GOSHEN — A vacant Wilden Avenue lot owned by the Goshen Redevelopment Commission will soon be the site of a new Habitat for Humanity home following action by the commission Tuesday afternoon.

At the meeting, commission members approved a proposal by Habitat for Humanity of Elkhart County for the purchase of the vacant lot, located at 217 W. Wilden Ave., at a cost of $8,500.

"We issued an RFP several months ago for the sale of the property," Mark Brinson, community development director for the city, said in introducing the proposal Tuesday. "The list price was $17,900. We received two proposals, one from Lloyd and Phyllis Yoder. Their proposal was to build a two-story single-family home, 1,200 square feet. It would be either as a rental property, or possibly sold to a new owner. They offered $16,100."

"The second proposal was from Habitat for Humanity, and their proposal was strictly for an owner-occupied single-family home," Brinson added. "They proposed a one-story ranch home. So, we had a committee we established...and we met and looked at both proposals. The consensus was that we liked the Habitat proposal, in large part because that was focused solely on an owner-occupied home, and did not entertain that as a rental property. We thought that was good for the neighborhood."

Brinson noted that the only concern the committee had with the Habitat proposal was that the organization typically only constructs one-story homes, while most homes along Wilden Avenue are two-story homes.

"In a neighborhood with all two-story homes, this would be a one-story home, and architecturally seemed out of place," Brinson said. "So, we initiated a conversation with Greg Conrad, the Habitat director who is here, and we talked about the possibility of a two-story home, and that's something apparently Habitat has been thinking about in Elkhart County.

"It has happened in other places, but it has not happened here at this point," he added. "But for an infill project in a two-story neighborhood, we felt like that was an important thing to consider, and they did agree that they would build it as a two-story home."

With that decision, Brinson noted that the home will become the first two-story home ever built by Habitat in the county, with the intention being to break ground on the home yet this year at an anticipated construction cost of approximately $125,000.

In speaking to the commission about the proposal, Conrad, whose full title is executive director and president of Habitat for Humanity of Elkhart County, noted that housing demand in Elkhart County has long been on the upswing — a reality felt significantly by his organization.

"We are, as you are aware, facing a significant housing shortage in Elkhart County, and so we have been inundated with families that are looking for houses," Conrad said. "Our board just approved the largest class ever. We just brought 11 more families into our program, with a commitment to build for them in the near future. I am actually leaving this meeting to go break ground on our eighth project since May of last year. It will also be in Goshen. And we just finished two houses over on Hickory Avenue, so we are very actively building in Goshen specifically."

Speaking to the two-story requirement, Conrad noted that while the Wilden Avenue home will be the first such home Habitat has constructed in the county, it will be of a similar overall size, scope and quality to all other homes constructed by the organization.

"So, from a fairness perspective, we treat all of our families the same regardless of their income levels," Conrad said. "We will have to modify our approach because of the two-story, as there are some things that volunteers can't do on a two-story home. So, that's part of the commitment that we're making is to develop a home and construction processes that will allow us to do this.

"My commitment to Mark, and the people that I met with, and that our board has approved at our June board meeting, is that this is something that we will be doing," he added, "because we realize that in order to fulfill our mission, and the needs of the community, a lot of the areas where lots are available will require us to build a two-story home to fit with the character of the neighborhoods."

In the end, the commission's members concurred with the committee's assessment, and a motion was put forward and passed unanimously to approve the Habitat for Humanity proposal and move forward with a purchase agreement.

ABOUT HABITAT

Habitat for Humanity is a volunteer-driven nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry that seeks to eliminate poverty housing around the world. Habitat homes are sold with no interest mortgages, so they may be more affordable to very low-income families who might otherwise not have the option of homeownership.

John Kline can be reached at john.kline@goshennews.com or 574-533-2151, ext. 240315. Follow John on Twitter @jkline_TGN.