Habitat for Humanity plans Mansfield neighborhood

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

After almost a decade, Habitat for Humanity is coming back strong in Mansfield, preparing to build an entire neighborhood, starting this fall.

Sayers Landing, off West Broad Street and Sayers Drive, will eventually have 22 single-family homes, all constructed by Habitat for Humanity.

Three new homes will start going up this November.

“We have 3 acres that we will be building on, and this will take place over the next couple of years,” said Tiffany Hall, director of individual giving for Trinity Habitat for Humanity. “Twenty-two single-family houses are slated to be complete by 2027.”

All of the homes will be two-story houses with at least 1,150 square feet, she said, and cost approximately $220,000 to build. Habitat will sell the homes to the new owners for $189,000 with 3 percent to 5 percent interest over 30-year loans.

Homeowners also will have to qualify, study and put in sweat equity for their homes.

“Families must meet the requirement of living below 80 percent of the area median income in order to qualify for one of homes built by volunteers,” Hall said. “For a family of three, you are looking at around $68,000. This would include many of our essential workforce families.

“Families are required to do 200 sweat equity hours as part of the program, which includes Habitat U Classes (financial literacy classes), hours spent building their home and their neighbors' homes, and community service hours with other non-profits in the area,” she said.

Three homes will go up this fall, starting the first week of November, with plans to them to be completed and ready for new families by January or February, Hall said. One of the homes will be a traditional Habitat build, with the first floor constructed by volunteers and Habitat contractors. The other two homes for medium-income families with more square footage, but they will still be affordable, she said.

Habitat built its first Mansfield house in 2005, but hasn't built one since 2016 due to COVID and the search for property, Hall said.

Volunteers and sponsors are needed to help build the new neighborhood. There will be 10 volunteer days from November through December.

“We have to meet certain costs in order for the home to remain affordable,” Hall said. “Our sponsors get a certain amount of volunteer spots.”

After the sponsor spots are filled, Habitat will fill the rest of the volunteer slots with other volunteers. Habitat also needs lunch sponsors to provide food for the volunteers, she said.

Families that would like to apply to be a future homeowner can visit trinityhabitat.org and select the "apply for a home" button.  People looking to sponsor or volunteer can contact Hall at tiffany.hall@trinityhabitat.org.

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