Habitat for Humanity Project Moves Forward

The City of Summit is inching closer to fulfilling its affordable housing obligation.

Blair Schleicher Bravo, executive director of Morris Habitat for Humanity, said the Interfaith Community Build project to bring six affordable housing units to Summit is moving forward as planned.

The organization is currently in negotiations with a landowner regarding two parcels of land, 47-49 Morris Avenue, on the corner of Orchard Street behind Wallace Chapel and AME Zion Church. Currently the parcels contain a duplex and an auto upholstery company.

“Nothing’s been finalized yet,” she said. “But we’re hoping that’s the place.”

The Summit Affordable Housing Corporation, a non-profit arm of the housing authority, was charged with building 60 affordable housing units in the next 10 years under the Fair Housing Act. Bravo said while the Summit Affordable Housing Corporation currently maintains affordable housing units in Summit, the city has not built any new ones in 25 years.

As of July 15, Bravo said area congregations, Morris Habitat for Humanity and other community organizations have already raised $300,00o of the needed $835,900 for construction of the units.

Each unit will consist of either two or three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, dining room and two bathrooms. Morris Habitat is helping organize the project as well as screen and select qualified applicants, acting as general contractor, and will be holding the mortgages for the applicants.

But Bravo emphasized that applicants are rigorously screened and must follow certain guidelines if selected, such as participate in home ownership classes and give back to the Habitat project through “sweat equity.”

“We’re not building the home for you,” she said. “We’re building it with you.”

Each unit will cost between $100,000 and $150,000 depending on the number of bedrooms.

“We’re giving families a hand up to home ownership,” Bravo said.

The project was scheduled to go before the Zoning Board earlier this month but Bravo said they withdrew their application for the meeting. She said they hope to be under contract to purchase the property before they go before the zoning board for final site plan approval. Bravo expects this will happen sometime in November.

This pushes the overall timetable for the project back by a few months. The groundbreaking was originally scheduled to take place in March but Bravo says it will most likely now occur in April or May.

But Bravo is not worried about getting site plan approval from the zoning board. They have already been involved in the design process making suggestions for modifications to the structure. The building has been designed with careful consideration, Bravo said.

“We’ve designed it so it fits in the neighborhood,” she said. “It will never look like an apartment building.”

20 area congregations, such as St. John’s Lutheran Church, Mt. Olive Temple and Calvary Episcopal Church, have already pledged to raise money for the program and Bravo said almost every faith is represented.

The generosity of the Summit community and the continued involvement from the city government is something Bravo said she has greatly admired.

“This is their town,” she said. “(The city) didn’t just abdicate their responsibly.”

Morris Habitat will be hosting a Kickoff “Raise the Roof” event October 4 at the Grand Summit Hotel where people will be able to view the site plans and see how they can get involved with the project.