By: Paul Schreiner, Executive Director
In 2024, two identical houses were built by the Project Neighbors team of volunteers: Brown Street and Cyrus Street. Both lots are narrow—45 feet compared to the standard 66 feet—which necessitated putting the required parking slab in front of the house.
We broke ground on the Brown Street site in late October of 2023 and completed the house in May of 2024. During that same month, we broke ground on the Cyrus Street house, which we completed this fall. Both houses are 1,200 square foot, single story houses with one bath, three bedrooms, and built on a slab.
These are basic, no frills—but well built—housing. With our tax exempt status (no sales tax on materials and no property tax), and with the benefit of volunteer labor on many tasks, we built these houses for about $125,000 including the land! With the spike in interest rates, rental costs are higher than we like, but still half or less than half of market rate.
While neither house will make the cover of Architectural Digest, two families will come home each day to safe, comfortable, and affordable housing.
Thank you, loyal volunteers!