It’ll be the seventh residence in the city
By John Tredrea, Special Writer
Habitat for Humanity International, which has built five single-family houses and one two-family residence in Lambertville, expects to have another single-family home ready for occupancy early next year.
At its March 18 meeting, the City Council approved Habitat’s proposal to build that home at 32 Belvidere Ave. The family that will occupy the home has yet to be chosen.
”We hope to start work on the house in June,” said Bill Weisberger, director of construction for Habitat’s Raritan Valley office, based in Somerville. “Since the family that will live in the house will help build it, that family will be chosen before we start construction.”
The family will be chosen from those who attended a series of meetings Habitat hosted for those interested in living in the home, the sixth that Habitat will build in the Belvidere Avenue area.
”Our most recent completed project is a two-family house on York Street,” Mr. Weisberger said. “We finished that last year.”
Habitat for Humanity International is a non-profit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry whose goal is to “make decent, affordable housing available to every family worldwide,” a spokesperson for the organization said. “Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity works to achieve that goal in Somerset and Hunterdon counties.”
Mr. Weisberger said: “Lambertville has worked very cooperatively with us. We’ve been able to get a lot of work done there.”
Noting that “we work a bit slower than a commercial builder because our work is all volunteer,” he added that the house at Belvidere is expected to be completed by next January and occupied a month or two later. The structure will be a 1,150-square-foot, three-bedroom home. The price is $140,000, with no down payment and a no-interest mortgage. The home will have one bathroom, a well, public sewer service, forced hot air heat, a gravel driveway and will be handicapped-adaptable.
Typically, the owner of a Habitat for Humanity home must agree to put in time as “sweat equity” to help build the house. A single-adult family with children would be expected to put in 250 hours, with a minimum 100 personal hours of actual construction. A family of two adults would be expected to put it 500 hours, with most of it as actual construction.
There are income guidelines. A family of two must have income between a minimum of $36,515 and a maximum $42,000. The maximum income for a family of 3, 4, 5 or 6 people rises to $47,250, $52,500, $56,700 and $60,900, respectively.