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Highlands Today

Habitat Proposes Downtown Workforce Housing

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By MARC VALERO

Highlands Today

Published: August 31, 2008

SEBRING - Highlands County Habitat for Humanity looks to expand from its typical single-family home construction with a downtown Sebring workforce housing townhouse project.

"Our goal is to bring world-class affordable workforce housing under the Habitat model," Highlands County Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Michael Jacobson said Wednesday.

"We are moving from the traditional single-family wood frame house that we've been building pretty much the same way for the last 30 years." he said. "We are going into totally green-built units that are guaranteed not to have mold and mildew and rot and termites and that are 200-mile-an-hour wind-tested for hurricanes.

Habitat is planning developments with two-story townhouses that will provide more homes for more families on the same amount of property that previously would have accommodated one or two houses.

"We are bringing a higher level of architectural and design excellence to a category of housing that previously did not have those types of features available to them," Jacobson said.

After serving as Habitat executive director in Sarasota County, Jacobson came to lead Habitat here only two months ago.

Sebring CRA Executive Director Pete Pollard said: "I'm familiar with several of the projects they did over there Sarasota; they are very impressive. I think we are very lucky to have him here."

Attracting residential development to downtown is one of the primary goals of the CRA.

"If we put our two efforts together we could probably have some very positive impacts on some neighborhoods," Pollard said.

The housing market is stagnant, but Habitat has a long list of qualified clients who are looking for homes, he said. These are hard working middle class residents who need a little assistance so they can own a home and Habitat provides that.

Jacobson said with a beautiful circle, but empty store fronts, bringing in new families and homeowners to the downtown who have disposable income will certainly help stimulate new retail businesses.

The initial new Habit project is eyed for vacant land at Ridgewood Drive and Orange Street near the U.S. Post Office.

The plan calls for eight townhouses, two buildings with four units, with green space between the buildings. Single-car garages would be located behind the buildings.

The street-side of the buildings would have porches, landscaping and no parking for a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood feel, Jacobson said.

The Sebring CRA unanimously agreed to move forward with the partnership, he said.

Pollard said it would be positive on a number of levels: providing housing, improving the tax base and bringing new construction to downtown.

"It puts us in a very good position, I think, to attract other developers once the market begins to turn and they see that the downtown area is viable for residential development," he said.

Jacobson said since the property is already vacant and has utility service, "we could be ready to go pretty fast. We already have potential homeowners who are already working in and around the downtown area.

Unlike in the conventional market where trying to find home buyers today is a pretty tough thing to do, Jacobson said "we've got 75 families performing vital functions in our city that are ready to go and move in and pay their taxes and pay their mortgages."

Marc Valero can be reached at 386-5826 or mvalero@highlandstoday.com

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