Habitat prepares to ramp up building homes in Bladen County

Dec. 9—ELIZABETHTOWN — Fayetteville Area Habitat for Humanity, which maintains an office in Elizabethtown, builds houses with an affordable mortgage for board-approved families.

Plans call for the Christian nonprofit organization to pick up the pace and begin building two houses a year in Bladen County.

The service area of the Fayetteville Area Habitat for Humanity includes Bladen, Cumberland and Sampson counties.

The Rev. Daniel Collins serves as director of faith and community relations for the affiliate, which already has selected the families and the location of the two properties at Joel and Fox streets in Elizabethtown.

"They are located near each other," he said of the respective properties. "There are two properties in Elizabethtown that the Habitat is going to be building a house at those locations in 2022. We're already permitted and going to be doing the foundation work for two homes within the next month."

At the same time, Collins said, his organization needs additional funding and more volunteer labor to get the projects done. He's put out a call for interested volunteers to get ready to come help with home construction early next year.

"The cost for us to do a house — when you factor in all the volunteer labor and donated material — is around $125,000 a year," the 34-year-old Daniel said. "We're looking to raise $120,000 in 2022 to get those two houses done. We already have some."

Collins and his wife, the Rev. Lindsey Collins, moved to Elizabethtown in July when she accepted the position as pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. Previously, he worked as the director of the small affiliate Person County Habitat for Humanity from November 2016 to June 2021. Collins said he quickly found a connection with Fayetteville Area Habitat for Humanity, so he now commutes to Fayetteville and Bladen and Sampson counties on behalf of his job.

According to materials used to promote the Bladen County projects, Habitat for Humanity "builds decent, affordable housing for low- to moderate-income families. Qualified, board-approved partner families complete 300 hourd of sweat equity and home ownership training before getting the opportunity to purchase a Habitat House with an affordable mortgage."

The cost of a three-bedroom home that Habitat is looking at for the two Bladen County homes is $120,000 each, Collins said.

One of the homes, he noted, is totally square.

"We have a lot of different plans," he said. "Part of it has to do with the size of the lot and the buildable space. We have to fit the house design to the lot. We also fit the house to the size of the family. House size will relate to that.

"We wanted to ensure that affordable housing option was maintained in the county. We wanted to make sure that continued. Two houses a year is a much greater pace than it was before for construction. It's an increase for construction pace."

Those two houses, once completed, won't be the first homes constructed by Habitat for Humanity in the county.

"There was a pre-existing Habitat affiliate called Bladen County Habitat for Humanity." Collins recalled. "That affiliate was merged with Fayetteville Habitat for Humanity. So there are houses completed over a couple-plus decades in Bladen County. Our goal now is to do two houses a year."

As a nonprofit, Fayetteville Area Habibat for Humanity operates through the kindness of donations and grant funding.

"We've received a great amount of money through the city of Fayetteville," he said. "We're getting ready in the next few months to finish a 47-house development built over the last 2 1/2 years. That gives you an idea of the pace that's possible. A lot of the funding for that project came directly from the city of Fayettevile. We get various other grants, grants that have funded hurricane repairs. We have a repair program that repairs hurricane damage for veteran homeowners. We also have a restore at the location of our main office. Used items and slightly used items create revenue for the program, too."

For more information or to donate to the agency or volunteer your time, call Collins at 910-483-0952, Ext. 4.

This story authored by Michael Futch of the Bladen Journal. Contact him at 910-247-9133 or mfutch@bladenjournal.com.