City Manager Craig Bucheit said finding affordable homes “is a huge issue” and they are short thousands of housing options across the city, which is more than about building houses. It’s restoring neighborhoods, he said, creating opportunities for working families and investing in the city’s future.
The first investment is addressing the gap in affordable housing, Bucheit said after the groundbreaking for the first two of a dozen homes to be constructed in the Jefferson neighborhood.
Eventually, the initiative will be funded through home sales, but initial money will be provided through federal block grants, donations from the Hamilton Community Foundation, contributions from community partners, and, if needed, city funds. Other community partners include Habitat for Humanity, Neighborhood Housing Solutions, Hamilton CORE and Community First Solutions.
Most of those partners were among 100-plus that celebrated Thursday afternoon’s groundbreaking.
“These shovels in the ground here today represent a year’s worth of work,” said Bucheit. “A lot of planning, a lot of partnerships, building the tools, building the collaboration we need to make this program successful.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
The homes at 934 and 938 East Ave. are the first of the dozen homes to be constructed over the next 12 months. These East Avenue homes are championed by Hamilton CORE, which is partnering with Community First Solutions, the general contractor of the project.
Though Community First Solutions has expanded its operations into neighboring and nearby counties, CFS President and CEO Brett Kirkpatrick said, “We have never lost sight of one thing: where our home is.
“We’re excited about this, we’re energized about this, we think this is absolutely the right way to go as a city,” he said. “We’ve seen some amazing, amazing things over the years in our city of Hamilton, and this is just the next phase.”
Hamilton Community Foundation Vice President Katie Braswell said community collaboration is always heartening.
“We’re inspired to see the community coming together and look forward to the impact this project will bring,” she said. “The Hamilton Community Foundation has a long history of supporting projects that transform our city and Build Back the Block is no exception.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
The Build Back the Block program also represents something not being done in other larger cities, at least yet, said Community Design Alliance co-founder and Hamilton CORE President Mike Dingeldein.
“We’re ahead of other cities — Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland," he said. “It’s going to make a big difference.”
The city is focusing on the Jefferson neighborhood, a traditional neighborhood that has seen a decline in recent decades, which is why Hamilton is making a concerted push to focus on the area. Jefferson is at one time a highly industrial neighborhood that is now the city’s most ethnically diverse neighborhood.
Over the next year, the first dozen homes as part of the Build Back the Block initiative will be built on East, Ludlow, and Maple avenues led by Hamilton CORE and Community First Solutions, Habitat for Humanity and Neighborhood Housing Solutions of Hamilton, and one private builder, Todd Homes.
“We do have some very ambitious goals,” said Bucheit. “This is just the beginning of it.”
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