Habitat for Humanity receives revitalization grant

Recently, Habitat for Humanity received a grant of $2 million from John Deere. 

“The grant from John Deere is a 4-year grant to help kickstart our Neighborhood Revitalization efforts in the Historic Church Row Neighborhood,” Conger said. 

The money is going to be divided among four different years and will be used for a variety of things such as new home construction, home rehabs, home repair projects and neighborhood outreach and awareness efforts.

Habitat for Humanity is an organization with local affiliates serving communities across all 50 states and approximately 70 countries. Habitat has the vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. 

Habitat works with families that would like to own a home but are not in the situation where that is a possibility. Habitat also works with current homeowners that have critical repairs that need to be done at their house so they can continue living in their house. 

Habitat has also begun focusing on Neighborhood Revitalization work where they focus their efforts to a specific neighborhood and work to help improve the overall quality of life in a neighborhood. 

“We believe that taking a holistic approach to our neighborhood efforts, beyond just our physical construction work, will have a much greater impact on the quality of life for all residents. For example, we are now an active participant in two different neighborhood coalitions where we get to discuss as a team not only the challenges around housing but also how to advocate for better sidewalks, access to employment, safer transportation methods, increased neighborhood amenities (parks, gardens, art displays), etc.,” Andy Conger, the Neighborhood Services Manager at Habitat, said. 

“We are very well aware that true Neighborhood Revitalization in Church Row will take the whole community being involved and will take a lot longer than four years. We are grateful for this generous grant to enable us and the community to get a great start on what we are confident will be a lasting and sustainable improvement in the quality of life for all residents of Church Row,” Conger said.