Habitat for Humanity of Summit County will build 16 homes on a vacant North Hill block, while the city will add a new park on the westernmost acre. On Nov. 6, Akron City Council voted unanimously to donate the city-owned land to the nonprofit.
“We’re ready to go,” said Rochelle Sibbio, the agency’s president and CEO, as she addressed members of council’s Planning and Economic Development Committee that afternoon.
The new development will be on a three-acre block in North Hill, bordered by Dan Street to the west, Evans Avenue to the north, Hollibaugh Avenue to the south, and Damon Street to the east. The city will develop and maintain the park on the section of the plot facing Dan Street. Habitat will build eight homes facing Evans Avenue and eight facing Hollibaugh Avenue on the remaining two acres east of the park.
Land is already zoned residential
The land, Sibbio said, was particularly attractive because, unlike many other vacant plots throughout the city, this block was already zoned for residential use. And the North Hill neighborhood, she said, is an ideal location for many families in the Habitat for Humanity of Summit County program.
The project will cost about $3.2 million to build, she said, with money coming from public subsidies, private corporations, grants and church partners. Each of the 16 homes will likely be appraised at around $200,000.
Thanks to an $800,000 subsidy from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (distributed through the City of Akron), the new homeowners’ mortgages will be reduced to $150,000 to $160,000 at a zero percent interest rate, Sibbio told council.
“We should have the first foundations into the ground by the first of the year,” she said. Six houses should be ready for families to move in by early next summer. The other 10 homes will be built in two separate phases when more funding is secured. So far, nine families have been selected for the development, with other families currently going through the screening process.
