Habitat Launching Petition Drive To Save State Grant

In an attempt to save a $2.5 million workforce-housing grant from state budget cuts, Habitat for Humanity of Highlands County is launching a petition drive.

The petition asks state officials for final approval of the Community Workforce Housing Innovation Pilot (CWHIP) grant, a key piece of financing Habitat's 100-townhouse Ridgeview project.

Late last year, Habitat received tentative approval for the grant to build the townhouses on a 20-acre site on the east side of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, just south of Arbuckle Creek Road.

But the CWHIP grant is now in jeopardy because state budget cuts reduced funding for housing grants by $190 million, to just over half of what it had been.

"We're reaching out to the community for support," said John Hawthorne Jr., chief operating officer of the non-profit agency.

Hawthorne and Mike Jacobson, executive director of the county's Habitat chapter, will present the petition on Feb. 17 to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, which allocates state housing grants.

"Our intent (with the petition drive) is getting the community mobilized to make our voice even louder and more compelling than it would be if we just spoke alone," Hawthorne said.

"What we're doing is reaching out to the entire county for support," he added. "We feel that it is to the benefit of the community to make its voice heard that these 100 homes are critical to our families."

With more than 200 families seeking Habitat for Humanity homes, 75 families have completed Habitat's requirements for home ownership and are on a waiting list.

"Some have been waiting for up to two and a half years," Hawthorne said.

They will be asked to sign the petition, as will Habitat homeowners, volunteers, donors and supporters. The petition will be circulated by area churches and businesses that support Habitat, and be available at Habitat's Home Supply Store, 137 S. Commerce Ave.

If the CWHIP grant does disappear, Habitat will go ahead and build about 65 single-family homes at the Ridgewood site, Hawthorne said.

"While that would have a significant impact on community housing, it would be a much bigger, better impact if we can do 100 townhome units," he said.

The CWHIP grant would allocate $25,000 to each of the planned two-story townhouses. With the grant, Habitat's zero-percent mortgages and mostly volunteer labor, the townhouses would sell for between $68,000 to $72,000, Jacobson said.

Monthly payments on the townhouses would run between $450 to $475 per month, including mortgage, taxes and insurance, Jacobson said.

Jacobson said Habitat hopes to collect at least 1,000 signatures on its petition.

"Hopefully," he said, "that can tip the scale in our favor as to whether the $2.5 million is coming to our community."