"100-year investment": Habitat For Humanity project to reshape St. Paul's east side
ST. PAUL, Minn. — In just under two months, more than 4,000 volunteers will work to transform a portion of St. Paul's east side, creating a new neighborhood in the process.
"The Heights" community will feature nearly 150 homeownership units, split between single family homes, twin homes and townhomes.
The project has been in the works for some time, but was kicked into high gear when the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Work Project picked the Twin Cities Habitat For Humanity for this fall.
"The project we're about to take on is by far the largest project Habitat has ever done," said Chris Coleman, former St. Paul Mayor and current President/CEO of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. "The logistics are crazy. It's getting volunteers to site, feeding them two meals a day, making sure they have the tools, making sure they're assigned to the houses they're supposed to be at. So, it is a complex undertaking."
Between Sep. 29 and Oct. 4, volunteers will build 30 homes. Coleman says he hopes to have homeowners in by the start of the new year.
"They're going to be beautiful homes in a beautiful new community with playgrounds, and parks, and opens spaces, and jobs on site as well, it's going to be a great community. Kind of a recreation of the historic east side," he said.
Applications to own a home are still open. In the past fiscal year, Coleman says Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity helped a record 140 families close on homes.
"There is an absolute housing crisis," he said. "Our families are frontline workers. They're bus drivers, they're teachers. They're nurses, they're security personnel. These are hardworking families that we're assisting, but for our help wouldn't be able to achieve the dream of owning a home."