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A 2003 NAHB study for the Homeownership Alliance revealed that service sector workers had a less than one-in-three chance of finding a home they could afford in city cores and a three-in-10 chance of finding an affordable suburban home.
Knight said CHI plans to sell the Mitchell Chase homes for “the equivalent of $120,000 to $125,000.”
Products and Services From Volunteers Keep the Homes Affordable
To keep the homes affordable, more than 25 building industry-related professionals from the Cobb Chapter are donating their services and products outright or providing them at reduced rates as part of the partnership.
CHI was founded in 1992 to serve the housing and economic development needs of low- to moderate-income families in Cobb County. The organization generally provides about 10 infill homes a year with funding provided through HUD’s HOME Program — federal funds used to build, buy or rehabilitate affordable housing for rent or homeownership or provide direct rental assistance to low-income people.
The Mitchell Chase subdivision, however, is a new effort by CHI to build a workforce housing community with assistance and donations from the building industry. Knight said money raised through the sale of the homes would then be used as seed money and a catalyst to develop future workforce housing communities — also with assistance and donations from members of the building industry.
A Mechanism to Give Back
Bobby Lunceford, president of Bob Lunceford Properties and the HBA’s Cobb Chapter and a CHI board member, spearheaded the effort to involve his fellow Cobb Chapter members in the Mitchell Chase project. “A lot of people in our industry who work in the community want to serve and give back to the community but just don’t know how or where,” Lunceford said. Mitchell Chase provided them with that opportunity.
Cobb Chapter participants have already donated infrastructure development and land planning services, an area bank has provided a line of credit with reduced fees, and a surveyor has donated his time to get all the zoning approved.
Lunceford said he modeled the volunteer effort after Builders for Christ, a volunteer organization he participated in for more than 10 years. “Builders for Christ is an organization that goes around the country building churches,” Lunceford said. “About 150 volunteers would spend about a week building a church. Some were people in the industry. Most were just lay people."
“We thought we would be able to apply the same concept to Mitchell Chase, using volunteers from the housing industry,” Lunceford added.
Under the federal government’s HOME Program rules, CHI is required to provide at least 20% of the homes at Mitchell Chase as workforce housing. However, because of the partnership with the Cobb Chapter, Knight said all 31 homes will be built and sold as workforce housing. Knight added that the community will be built in three phases, with the first expected to be completed in about 18 months.
A Possible National Demonstration Project
The Atlanta metropolitan area recently was chosen as the first of 11 national demonstration sites for the “Housing America’s Workforce Initiative,” a program in which NAHB and Fannie Mae are collaborating to find creative ways to produce affordably priced housing for wage-earning families. Mitchell Chase is being considered as the demonstration project for the initiative.
CHI purchased the 9.5-acre Mitchell Chase tract several years ago using HOME funds. In addition to the subdivision now under construction, the site also contains a historic home that was built in the 1830s and served as a Civil War headquarters. The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation will preserve the home, which will be sectioned off from the 31-unit workforce housing development.
Industry Participants
The following industry and Cobb Chapter members are volunteering in the Mitchell Chase workforce housing project:
- Sammy Baker — Arrow Exterminators
- Bobby Betterton — Betterton Engineering
- Frank Betz — Frank Betz Architectural Designs
- Martin Fahsel — Branch Banking & Trust Co
- Howard Zuckerman — Camelot Signature Development
- Norma Cohen — Camelot Signature Development
- Tiffany Hooper — Countrywide Mortgages
- Grif Chalfant — CPC General Contractors
- Amy Davis — Attorney at Law
- John O'Driscoll — DuPont Corporation Tyvek® House Wrap
- Ted Skopinsik — Fidelity Bank
- Randy Stephens — Eagle Mortgage Services
- Terry Ogle — First Georgia Homes
- Christine Fortenberry — Fortenberry Construction
- Randy Hanson—Georgia Floors and Georgia Cabinets
- Andrea Surcey — Georgia Floors and Georgia Cabinets
- Ed Hatcher—Hatcher Homes
- Alan Lipset — publicist
- John Loud — Loud Security
- Scott Sawyer — Mobile Highway
- John Moore — Moore-Ingram Attorneys at Law
- Cynthia Poslenzny — Packer Industries, Inc.
- Lawrence Raimondi, Jr. — Perrotta, Cahn & Prieto, P.C. Technologies
- Bob Kelly — RWK Properties, LLC
- Bruce Stewart — Smart Wild
- Diane Behrens — Sunbelt Marketing Inc.
- Jamey Pugh — WillamsCraft Homes
- Mark Windam — Windman Services Bookkeeping and Income Taxes
- Seiss Wiesman — Wiseman, Novak, Wilco, Curry & Associates
For more about the affordability crisis workers in the south are facing, read "Workers in the South Singing Housing Affordability Blues" in the Aug. 8 edition of NBN Online.
To read more about the "Housing America's Workforce Initiative" launched by NAHB and Fannie Mae in Atlanta last month, click here.
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