The group poses for a photo at Habitat for Humanity’s newest project on Highview Street.
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
While technically trees had already been cleared and a large machine had already started digging up the ground, on Monday afternoon, South Shore Habitat for Humanity officially broke ground on what will be Westwood’s first Habitat for Humanity house, on the corner of Highview Street and Burgess Avenue.
At the construction site, which will officially have a Highview Street address, Dominique Mattieu, Dick Halverson, Christopher Coleman, Nora Loughnane, Michael Walsh, Noreen Brown and Beth Lyons put on their ceremonial hardhats and grabbed their surprisingly well-worn shovels to ascend the small hill the home will sit on and pose for a few photos.
A piece of property the town took back in tax title before a donor bought it and donated it to Habitat for Humanity, if all goes according to plan, nine months from now, the lot will hold a three bedroom, one-and-a-half bath Cape, similar to other homes in the area, which will be sold to a family for $205,000. The family has not been selected yet, and though they don’t have to come from the South Shore, according to Director of Project Developments Noreen Brown, they do have to “be willing to partner with Habitat, pay a mortgage because they will be purchasing the house, and qualify. There are income limits. This house will be sold to a family that earns no more than sixty percent of the area’s median income.”
While nine months may seem quick to build a house from scratch, the project has not been as fast as Habitat for Humanity would have liked. According to Brown, the project was supposed to start in either 2017 or 2018, but various things, including COVID-19, pushed it back.
Noting that “Anybody can volunteer, anybody can donate, and anybody can sponsor,” Brown explained that Habitat for Humanity is looking for volunteers, but trying to be very conscientious about the project’s impact on the neighboring homes. To that end, Brown is currently looking to see if she can find a local business where volunteers can park and be shuttled to the construction location, so their cars don’t clog the local streets.
“We’re going to do our best not to clog the road and make everybody miserable, so we’re looking for some local businesses that have some additional parking that we can use if we have to shuttle people back and forth just a couple of days a week.”
Habitat for Humanity is currently putting the finishing touches on a home in Easton, after which all of their resources will turn to the Westwood project.
The project is still looking for both volunteers to build the home, and families to apply for the house.
