NEWS FEATURE: Neighborhood Allies

Where Are They Now? | Habitat For Humanity | Homewood Bennett Street Development

July 30, 2019 8:48 am

During the 2018 Catalytic Grant cycle, we awarded $15,000 to Habitat For Humanity of Greater Pittsburgh to use in the development of 4 new homes on Bennett Street in Homewood. The development project also included homeownership training and a financial literacy course, 30-year 0% interest mortgages, and one-year warranties for 4 first-time homebuyers that would eventually occupy the new houses. As the project comes to a close, we reflect on Habitat for Humanity’s success and celebrate 4 new homeowners in Homewood!

Not only did Habitat For Humanity successfully create an increased Quality of Life for four low-to-moderate income families, they also achieved greater Market Confidence and contributed toward a Celebrated Neighborhood Image for the Homewood community. By reenvisioning and repurposing a vacant, overgrown lot, Habitat For Humanity reduced blight and created new, energy efficient tax-paying homes. They also empowered 4 first-time homebuyers to create a savings and budgeting plan, enabling them to confidently become new homeowners.

Additional Outcomes:

• All 4 homebuyer families are single African American women who earn 30-60% of the area median income.

• All 4 homebuyers completed the requirements for Habitat’s homeownership program, including taking financial literacy courses and aiding in the building of their new home, successfully.

• All 4 homebuyers met their savings goals.

Several minority contractors were employed throughout the development process.

“The grant provided by Neighborhood Allies was an integral part of completing this $1.1MM urban housing development,” said Dr. Howard B. Slaughter, Jr., President & CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Pittsburgh. “The leveraging aspect of having Neighborhood Allies’ participation in this development was equally, if not, more important than the grant itself. Receiving funding from Neighborhood Allies is tantamount to a development worthy of other funding support.

This project addressed Neighborhood Allies’ Quality of Life pillar of the Healthy Neighborhoods Framework by providing housing for low-to-moderate income families and aiding them in connecting to economic opportunity and wealth building. In addition, it contributed to the neighborhood’s Market Confidence by creating new, inhabitable homes. Finally, the project helped in creating a Celebrated Neighborhood Image by reducing blight and making use of vacant lot space.

Original article can be found here.