NEWS INFORMATION FROM

THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED
City of Harrisburg
King City Government Center
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1678
Telephone: 717.255.3040

FOR IMMEDIATE USE
30 October 2003

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY KICKS OFF PERMANENT HEADQUARTERS FUND DRIVE; NEW AND EXPANDED SERVICES TO BE OFFERED TO MIDSTATE

Harrisburg, PA—Mayor Stephen R. Reed and officials from the Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Harrisburg Area today launched the capital fundraising campaign, “A Home For Habitat”, to help establish a permanent headquarters facility for the organization in the City of Harrisburg. To be located at 100 N. 13th Street in the City’s Allison Hill neighborhood, the new Habitat headquarters will provide office and storage space, as well as an innovative new retail store that provides low-cost home building and rehabilitation materials.

Reed said Habitat for Humanity’s activities in the Harrisburg region has been expanding for several years, and a permanent quarters is now desperately needed. The 28,000 sq. ft. building at 100 N. 13th Street was donated to the non-profit, faith-based organization by the city and will be rehabbed to provide new offices and meeting space, storage and staging facilities, and in a first for the midstate, a new ‘ReStore’ that will resell various low cost building supplies and materials that are donated to the organization.

Mayor Reed said Habitat for Humanity has been an active partner with the city in restoring quality homes for resale to first time, owner-occupant homebuyers. Since 1995 the city has provided Habitat $569,605 in direct funding for materials, supplies and sites, and has worked closely with them in providing thirty-three sturdy but blighted homes for rehabilitation and resale. Habitat has also rehabbed or performed repairs on more than ten homes in the city for homeowners with physical or other limitations. Potential homebuyers must invest substantial amounts of sweat equity time in the rehabilitation of their home, and are then allowed to purchase the home at-cost. With the property, much of the building supplies and all the contractor work donated, new Habitat homes are often offered at half of what similar homes would sell for.

“Habitat for Humanity” is a terrific organization that gets right to the heart of the problems many Americans experience in securing their piece of the “American Dream,” said Mayor Reed. “One house at a time, and one new homeowner at a time, Habitat is helping to change the face of American cities and the economic well-being of its citizenry. They are an excellent organization and we urge the public to be generous with its donations to this very worthwhile project.”

Former Dauphin County Commissioner Sally Klein, Chairwoman of the “A Home for Habitat” fundraising campaign, said “we are very excited about the future of Habitat for Humanity in Harrisburg, and are delighted to be a partner with the city in continuing the city’s resurgence through increased home ownership opportunities.”

Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Harrisburg Area Executive Director Susan Mulford, said “With the need for decent affordable housing for low-income families ever increasing, along with the financial challenges Habitat for Humanity faces in continuing to provide housing, funding for the new Habitat headquarters will require the help of the greater community at-large.”

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