Several Harrisburg families will soon receive the keys to newly built affordable homes.
On Wednesday, Harrisburg nonprofit Tri County Housing cut the ribbon on five new townhomes in Allison Hill, which will benefit lower-income residents.
“We are turning blight into something right,” said Mayor Wanda Williams, who spoke at the event. “When we can provide safe spaces for people to live, people take ownership of that block. That is how we turn this city around.”
The five attached houses are located on the 200-block of Hummel Street. Each home is about 1,600 square feet, features three bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths, and a full basement. They are listed for $124,900 to $126,900 each, and three of the five are currently under contract.
According to Gary Lenker, executive director of Tri County Housing, the organization began acquiring the blighted properties that previously stood at the location in 2015 and demolished them.
The new homes add to the five other renovated homes across the street that the organization completed around two years ago.
Lenker believes that the homeownership opportunity for residents will provide them with “stability and security.”
Tri County Housing also provides monthly first-time homebuyer workshops, which have become well attended, Lenker said.
The about $1.3 million project was funded using money from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA), the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), and the state’s share of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, among other sources.
Tri County Housing has also proposed constructing five affordable single-family townhomes on an overgrown lot on the 2100-block of N. 4th Street. Each 1,500-square-foot home would include three bedrooms and one-and-a-half baths.
According to Lenker, this would be Tri County’s first project in Harrisburg outside of Allison Hill, where most of their construction has taken place.
“We’d like to see this duplicated throughout the city,” Williams said at Wednesday’s ribbon cutting.
Full article can be found at the Burg News.
