Habitat for Humanity Project in Wayland Keeps Moving

Fifteen volunteers came to the Large Hearing Room at the Wayland Town Building last Thursday to hear about the next steps – and how they could help take them – in the Habitat for Humanity project planned for Wayland.

Beth Rust, community housing specialist with the Town of Sudbury, is the liaison between Wayland’s still-forming local Habitat team and the regional Habitat for Humanity MetroWest/Greater Worcester chapter, of which Wayland is a part.

Rust explained that while the regional chapter of Habitat had resources to support Wayland’s project, the Habitat model is really designed to be a local, community project.

“The work, mostly, is in the local project team,” Rust said, explaining that many things need to happen before construction, the most well known part of any Habitat for Humanity project, can even begin. “It is the community that makes this happen.”

At the 2010 Annual Town Meeting, Wayland approved setting aside town-owned land on Stonebridge Road for affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity stepped forward to help develop that parcel.

The plan is to construct four units in two structures on about three acres of land. The exact layout of the units has not yet been decided, but it’s likely that one of them will be a four-bedroom unit and the others two or three bedroom units.

“Even though it’s really a duplex, it will look like a single family home,” Rust said.

The goal is to break ground on the structures in the second quarter of 2012, though obtaining various permits and approvals, as well as making significant progress in fundraising, need to occur before that happens.

The total cost of the project is about $600,000, with each unit costing roughly $150,000 to construct. Ideally, before Habitat begins building a project, 30 percent of the project’s costs have already have been raised, meaning $180,000 needs to be in hand before this time next year.

Harriet Lebow, executive director of the regional Habitat chapter, also attended the meeting. She explained that the cost of the project is generally in materials and permits as the labor is voluntary. A typical breakdown in funds is 20-30 percent from in-kind contributions, meaning lumbar, paint and other donated materials; 20-25 percent from foundations; another roughly 25 percent from individual gifts; and the remaining 25 percent is from corporate builds, through which office teams or churches bring their materials and donate their time during a corporate build day.

Rust said the ideal situation also includes having a family selected for the home prior to the groundbreaking. She said that Habitat families are selected via a lottery system and she emphasized that homes are not given away through Habitat. The family who will live in the home must also invest sweat equity in the home to get it built. After that, they will make mortgage payments to Habitat that are relative to the family’s total income.

“This is not a giveaway program,” Rust said.

Because Wayland’s project is ambitious in scope, the volunteers at the meeting asked whether building one duplex at a time – thereby reducing the initial fundraising need to $90,000 – could be an option.

Rust and Lebow emphasized that there was still quite a lot of flexibility in the plans for this project, so one duplex at a time is an option.

“It’s a journey for the community,” Rust said. “It is really of the community to make it happen. [It’s] a nice way to generate good will around affordable housing and creating housing for people in need.”

The next steps for the project involve individuals taking leadership roles in community outreach, fundraising and construction (this person will work with the town and Habitat to finalize plans).

Moving forward, regular meetings will give members of the public opportunities to hear more about the project and continue to become involved.

In the meantime, for more information contact Rust at rustb@sudbury.ma.us or Mary Antes at mantes2@verizon.net.