A great opportunity for a first time homebuyer from Habitat for Humanity:

$50,000 grant available to qualified first time homebuyer!

Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity (NAHFH) has a $50,000 American Dream grant available immediately for a qualified homebuyer. The grant will be used to reduce the mortgage amount for a qualified, physically disabled first time homebuyer who is selected to build their home in NAHFH’s Timberwood community in Davidson County beginning September 2009. The homebuyer must also meet the additional requirements for Habitat home ownership, outlined further on the website at www.habitatnashville.org under the “Become a Homeowner” tab. For further information, please call Casey Campbell, Family Services Director, at 254-4663, x 215 or email her at ccampbell@habitatnashville.org.

From the Tennessean:

Circuit Judge Joe Binkley Jr. ruled against the neighbors’ claims in both suits, a decision neighbors say they will appeal.

“We will continue to fight because this project is not in the best interest of our community,” said Kevin Rodriquez, vice president of Concerned Neighbors of Davidson County.
“When you look at the total number of homes in the concentrated area, it becomes a small housing project. Our fight is to reduce the number of bedrooms from five to three.

“We feel Habitat has not looked at it holistically to see what ills will affect our community.”
Neighbors also expressed concerns about the size of the development and say the project’s residents will increase demand on area infrastructure, bring traffic and crime to the area and may decrease property values. They also questioned why Habitat wants to build in an area that already has two of the affordable home communities.

“We applaud the single mothers that want to have a better life for the kids, and we are not objecting to them coming here, but we just want a win-win for both parties,” Rodriquez said.

Officials with Habitat for Humanity say this project will invest almost $3.5 million to provide affordable housing for those who deserve it.

“We put hard-working, quality homeowners in these homes,” said Chris McCarthy, president and chief executive officer of Nashville Area Habitat. 

Coverage from the Nashville City Paper.

Good advice from Ms. Cheap in today’s Tennessean:

Every day in this lousy economy, I hear or read about non-profits struggling to survive.

I was out at St. Luke’s Community House in West Nashville earlier this month and learned that they’re seeing the need for their food and services surging out of control. At the same time, donations from businesses and individuals are on a downward spiral because everybody out there is hurting – or at least feeling wobbly about their future financial well being.

But that doesn’t mean we’re totally powerless to help the agencies and organizations that help the less fortunate in our community – like St. Luke’s, Second Harvest Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, Bethlehem Center and countless others.

Continue reading ‘Ms. Cheap: Find Creative Ways to Support Nonprofit Community During Recession’

From WKRN:

A man out for a drive Tuesday saved a couple from their burning home.

Mike “Goose” Davis was passing by a house on West Main Street in Franklin. He noticed a fire under the carport and stopped and banged on the door.

The smoke detectors hadn’t sounded yet, so the homeowners — Luis and Rosario Garcia — didn’t know the danger.

The got out, but the house — which was built by Habitat for Humanity — was a total loss.

Video from NewsChannel 5:

This weekend, NewsChannel 5 ran a story on a remarkable percentage of Habitat homeowners continuing to pay their mortgage in spite of tough times:

Despite tough times, Habitat homeowners are paying their mortgages. Mortgage delinquency rates at Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity homes have hit a 24-year low.

Mortgage delinquency rates at Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity homes have at a 24-year low of just more than one and a half percent.

Habitat homeowners are paying their mortgages and Habitat leaders have credited the agency’s Delinquency Committee and HomeWorks program.

HomeWorks is a series of classes preparing families for homeownership. The class covers financial management, the legal aspects of homeownership, budgeting, and other things including home maintenance.

From today’s Tennessean:

Habitat’s Park Preserve faces zoning battle

By Janell Ross
THE TENNESSEAN

The war over a northeast Nashville affordable housing development, Park Preserve, continues Thursday at the Metro Planning Commission’s regular meeting.

Commissioners will take up a request to rezone land where Habitat hopes to build 350 houses to a level where only 136 homes could be built.

“I think there is going to be a good turnout of folks there, protesting this whole thing,” said Metro Councilman Frank Harrison, who represents the area.

Commissioners will also consider Harrison’s request to declare inactive the planned unit development agreement that governs the site where Habitat hopes to build. The agreement allows the planning commission periodically to evaluate a developer’s progress on a project and, when progress is insufficient, declare the project inactive and suspend planning commission approval.

Continue reading ‘Battle Over Park Preserve Continues’

From today’s Nashville City Paper:

Legal opinion delays Council action on Habitat development
Nate Rau, nrau@nashvillecitypaper.com

After being informed by Metro Legal that three pieces of legislation regarding the proposed Habitat for Humanity development called Park Preserve might violate federal land use acts, Councilman Frank Harrison delayed his three bills indefinitely at Tuesday’s Council meeting.

Park Preserve would bring 350 homes into the districts of Harrison and District 3 Councilman Walter Hunt. Neighbors surrounding the proposed Habitat development have voiced their opposition and even filed a lawsuit on the issue.

In response, Harrison looked to alter zoning for the development, along with canceling the Planned Unit Development (PUD) for Park Preserve.

Continue reading ‘Legal Opinion Delays Council Action on Park Preserve’

From today’s Nashville City Paper:

Habitat for Humanity’s battle for a new development north of downtown has exposed one of the greatest challenges for any effort to help the lower economic rungs into homeownership. Simply put, the conundrum is where and how to provide in-demand low-income housing efficiently and affordably.

Typically, these battles expose hypocrisy more than anything else. That could be said about folks opposing Park Preserve, Habitat’s largest planned project in Nashville. In a recent public hearing of the Metro Planning Commission, there was plenty of “Habitat is a great organization, but…” or “I’ve helped build a Habitat house, but…”

The “but” is that the area already has two Habitat developments in their backyard. Residents’ concern is that 400 more homes will concentrate too much low-income housing in a working-class area, although Antioch has the greatest percentage of Habitat housing.

They may have a point. Folks in the affordable-housing sector and city planners acknowledge that there is an issue with “ghettoizing” an area if there is a high concentration of low-income housing, even with for-sale homes.

The Tennessean reports the latest in Habitat’s effort to build in northeast Nashville:

Habitat for Humanity is a step closer to sending its volunteer army of homebuilders into a northeast Nashville neighborhood after winning approval Thursday to build 34 homes there.

But the go-ahead from the Metro Planning Commission came at a price. Planning commissioners criticized Habitat for not working harder to reach an agreement with angry neighbors, and they entertained – but ultimately shot down – a motion to reject the development.

The neighbors showed up with an attorney for the first time and promised to look at all their legal options. “There’s a huge volume of people who are very adamant about making certain our voices are heard,” said Michael Pendleton, who spends much of his time running a private-equity firm in New York but owns a home in the Brookview neighborhood near Habitat’s Park Preserve site.

Habitat wants to build 350 homes on 220 acres off Ewing Drive and Whites Creek Pike. The planning commission approved the first phase of that plan. It still must pass Metro Council.

The Tennessean has a story today on Habitat’s development in a certain section of Davidson County:

Habitat for Humanity project revives old fears
Earlier development didn’t bring big crime, low values

Some might describe Providence Park by mentioning how many American flags billow from its porches, how many flowers are planted in its yards or how many minivans sit in its driveways.

They might note the sea of mostly black and brown children that flows from Paragon Mills Elementary School or the sounds of crickets, teenagers playing basketball and traffic from nearby Interstate 24 that dominate its evenings.

But the neighborhood is more than all those things.

Habitat for Humanity’s largest affordable housing development in Tennessee is a community where residents change their financial lives. It’s the kind of place the Nashville affiliate of the nation’s best-known charitable housing developer points to as an example of its impact.

Since Providence Park opened adjacent to a longstanding Southeast Nashville neighborhood in 2003, home values in and around it have risen at a modest but a steady rate. Incidents of crime dropped in 2004, then increased somewhat in successive years, a Tennessean analysis of crime and housing data showed.

Continue reading ‘Habitat Development Fears Are Often Misconceptions’