If you’ve been following along at home, you know we’ve already built houses for the Micah’s Creek Homeownership Opportunity Project on satellite lots on the east side of Athens. Well, now the phase-1 infrastructure on the main lot off Little Oak is complete, and we’re prepping to start on our first two structures there!

This project is more complicated than most, so just as a reminder, the Micah’s Creek project comprises 42 single-family homes and 11 tiny homes. There is a simultaneous project called Lydia’s Second Home, in partnership with Lydia’s Place, which will consist of an additional fifteen 2-bedroom bungalows also on the main lot.

This being a construction project, it has necessarily morphed as we navigate permits and grants and weather and inflation and fuel price spikes and all the other moving parts. We were not approved to keep all the old-growth trees we’d wanted to preserve, due to the density of the housing and the steep slope which would create fall hazards, but we were able to repurpose those trees as lumber, mulch, firewood, and raw material for local artists. We’re looking forward to watching the trees in our new plan grow and restore the canopy there.

But we do need gaps in that canopy because we’re also working with organizations like the Bright Homes Energy Initiative, GiveSolar, GotElectric, Habitat for Humanity Virginia, and Infinite Energy Advisors on multiple solarization projects, including at Micah’s Creek and Lydia’s Second Home. Our goal is to solarize all qualifying houses, including battery systems so the homes have limited power during outages.

The first homes constructed on the Little Oak site will be part of the Lydia’s Second Home project, which expands on our earlier work in partnership with Lydia’s Place to create the Lydia’s Homeplace units near Athens Technical College. These 2-bedroom bungalows will be constructed like our Build With Strength house, using insulating concrete forms (ICFs) for the walls.

ICFs are blocks of rigid insulation resembling LEGO blocks, which are stacked to form an inner and outer wall of insulation, connected to each other with rebar to create a rigid structure. A layer of concrete is then poured in the space between, resulting a super-strong frame for the home which is resistant to storms, termites, outside noise, and weather fluctuations. These structures are up to 60% more energy efficient than homes with “stick-built” walls, which means lower utility bills year-round. The concrete we use requires less water to produce than traditional processes and incorporates recycled aggregate, as well as captured coal ash which functions as a binder, trapping its CO2 and keeping it out of waste pits.

These homes will provide subsidized housing for young adults – most of whom have cycled out of the foster care system – who are pursuing their education and have no family to support them. For these hard-working students, an unpaid infirmary bill or parking fine can mean getting locked out of the dorms, and that can mean an end to a potential academic career. So stable subsidized housing is the #1 support we can give them.

This project would not have been possible without the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, which granted more than $4,750,000 for infrastructure and construction to make this dream a reality. That investment will be returned by transforming the lives of these formerly homeless youths, so that rather than facing a high chance of chronic unemployment, incarceration, and dependence on public assistance, they will instead be looking toward a future of productivity, independence, and financial and creative contribution to our community. The durability of these houses will ensure that there will be a place for class after class of future graduates for decades to come, and we are profoundly grateful to the Governor’s office for making that investment here in Athens.

Our congratulations to Arqushia Bess, our most recent future homeowner to complete her 500 hours of “sweat equity.” For those of y’all who don’t know, all Habitat homeowners perform 500 hours of work on their own home, on other homes, and/or in support roles such as helping out at the ReStores or providing lunches for our crew and other volunteers, as part of their investment in their new home.

Family, friends, and associates are welcome to chip in and help earn those hours, and for many of our new homeowners the sweat equity experience is the most memorable component of the process, and has led to lifelong friendships. It also helps Habitat home buyers understand how their homes are constructed and how to perform common repairs themselves without having to pay someone else to do it for them.

What we really love about it is that it gives our crew and the groups and individuals who volunteer on our build sites the opportunity to get to know the homeowners personally. Working side by side, breaking bread together, solving problems, and looking back on a day’s work well done, all of this strengthens the human bonds at the heart of what we do and why we do it.

So congratulations, Arqushia! And a heartfelt “Thank you!” to everyone who joined the Bess family on the site, and to all our families who swing hammers, make sandwiches, stock shelves, and otherwise put their shoulders to the wheel to help build homes and community here in Athens.

Our thanks go out to the Georgia Green Industry Association for designating Athens Area Habitat as a recipient of landscaping plants from this year’s Southeast Green Conference & Trade Show held at the Classic Center in Athens. The GGIA supports local horticulture in our state, and its members brought in a stunning variety of trees, shrubs, and flowers to Athens for the show in early June.

Some of these specimens have been used for landscaping at the homes we have currently under construction. The remainder were sold at our Barber Street ReStore location to raise money for our work in Clarke, Oconee, and Oglethorpe Counties.

Business donations are an important funding segment for our stores, which raise money for our housing mission and help cover overhead costs. If your company or organization has surplus which could be resold, you might consider making tax-deductible donations to your local ReStores, in Athens or elsewhere. Click here for our ReStores page and our Contact page.

Our home repair and accessibility programs, Brush With Kindness and A.I.M., will be accepting applications from July 7th to July 23rd.

Our home ownership program will accept applications from July 28 to August 13th.

To apply, after viewing our informational videos (see below), call or come to the office at 532 Barber Street between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays during the open application period only. Our staff stays very busy year-round managing our construction schedule, homeownership and rental programs, grant applications, stores, and more. To ensure all this work gets done, we will NOT accept walk-in application requests or discuss applications over the phone outside of these hours. If you leave a message during these hours, we will return your call. Our main office phone number is 706-208-1001. You can email us at outreach@athenshabitat.com.

IMPORTANT: Before deciding whether to apply, be sure to visit our website and view our videos for more information on who qualifies and how to apply by clicking on the links below:

• Home Ownership Program Information
• Home Repair Programs Information

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We can also assist low-income homeowners in applying for two federally-funded programs available in our state during our open application period for home repairs:

Energy Upgrades

If you have high energy bills and need heating and air conditioning, or have gas appliances that you would like to replace, we can help you apply for Georgia’s Home Energy Rebates Program during our open application period for home repairs July 7th to July 23rd between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Please note this is not a Habitat program and we cannot verify whether you will qualify.

Tree Removal

We can also assist qualified homeowners in approved census tracts with applying to the state’s Tree Removal Assistance Program. To be eligible, you must be a homeowner in a qualified area and have standing dead or dying trees endangering your property. You can search for your location here: Tree Removal Assistance Program Map. Please apply during our open application period for home repairs July 7th to July 23rd between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Again, this is not a Habitat program and we cannot verify whether you will qualify, but we can help you put in an application.