Habitat for Humanity is moving forward with building a 10-home neighborhood on Hwy 144, and Daviess County Fiscal Court is awarding them a Community Development Block Grant to get the early work started.
The grant is for $1 million and is planned to be used for the infrastructure for the subdivision: sewage, electric, gas, etc. Executive Director Jeremy Stephens said they aim to get the CBDG funds used as soon as possible.
“We can start putting together our bid requests and open them to the public so that anybody who has an interest in putting a bid on can do that,” Stephens said.
The CBDG requires a 25% match from Habitat. Stephens noted that building a subdivision gets costly quickly as they had to downsize the subdivision from 12 homes to 10 and some advice from the Fiscal Court.
“They wanted to make sure that these houses weren’t crammed in there so that the community could see affordable housing doesn’t always have to look like as many units as you can get in a small space area,” Stephens said.
The neighborhood will be named Carter Court Community in honor of former President Jimmy Carter. It sits on about 3 acres of land and will connect to Glenn Ct. When choosing the land, Stephens said they aimed to select a location close to shopping, bus routes, medical care and schools.
The area places them close to all the above markers: a short distance from Owensboro Health Regional Hospital, grocery stores, and other stores on both sides and within the Daviess County Public School district, among other amenities.
Even though the ground hasn’t been broken, Stephens said they already have 5 of the 10 homes reserved by families.
“They know we’re not going to be building for a minute. Some of them have been assigned for months now, and they knew that it’ll take a little longer because we’re not going to build out there for a while they were willing to wait,” Stephens said.
Stephens hopes to have the first 5 homes finished by December 31, even though he knows several timelines will have to be coordinated to make that happen.
Habitat will focus on finishing the 5 open projects throughout town before they are able to focus on Carter Court. In doing so, it’s estimated to buy equipment and materials in bulk so families don’t have to see such a high cost.
While they have $1 million in CDBG funds and another $1 million from a donation from the Fiscal Court, Habitat will still be fundraising to ensure the cost is as feasible for all involved.
Stephens teased there are several potentials for fundraising coming up that he can’t yet share but said they will be utilizing what’s called a Disciples Build. In this, they hope that 25 churches would dedicate to building one wall for each home and gift a donation of $1,000.
“It’s a really symbolic gesture of the community and the church coming together to build that house for that family,” Stephens said.
