Vermont Housing Conservation Board 2005 - Vermont Housing and ...

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Hard-Earned Homes
for Burlington’s New North End
Dual Goals:
Housing &
Conservation
Bob Eddy
Sarah and Chris Orndorff have put
in hundreds of hours of “sweat equity”
on their new home. Shown here with their sons,
Michael, William and Matthew, the Orndorffs
moved into their home in December.
Before they got in touch with Habitat for Humanity, Chris and Sarah Orndorff
and their three boys were living in a cramped, two-bedroom rental apartment
in Colchester. Stacey Lessor and her two daughters were in a Burlington mobile
home.
“I’ve lived in this mobile home for 15 years — and for a good share of them,
I’ve tried to get out,” Lessor says. “As a single parent, I work three jobs; I’ve done
my best to do right by my kids, and give them a good place to live. One day, I
decided to call Habitat,” she says. “I said, ‘Look — I’m a great candidate for one of
your homes.’”
On a 13-acre site donated by
the Burlington Housing Authority
(BHA), eight single family homes
will be developed and a 10-acre
natural area will be conserved
and managed by the City Parks
Department, with trails for public
use. VHCB awarded $177,000 to
Habitat and BHA towards construction
costs including $7,500
to conserve the Mt. Cavalry Red
Maple Swamp and create trails.
Over several years of negotiations,
the BHA and Habitat
worked with the Burlington
Conservation Board to reduce
the density of the development,
to forgo a proposed connecting
street through the natural area,
and to develop a conservation
plan for the wetland.
BHA was one of two housing
authorities in the country
designated to use a trial HUD
Program under which the home
purchasers are able to apply
Section 8 subsidies to pay their
mortgages. BHA constructed
two duplexes on the site; Green
Mountain Habitat for Humanity
will construct four homes.
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