MISHAWAKA — The Common Council Monday night approved $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act money for Habitat for Humanity of St. Joseph County to buy land for its next housing project in the McKinley Avenue corridor.

The money will go toward the land purchase and other related infrastructure work, according to Habitat President and CEO Jim Williams. He did not disclose the location because he said the deal has not been finalized.

Williams and the city jointly spoke Monday night before the council about Habitat’s next venture on the heels of its successful housing neighborhood project at the Fields at Highland, a 76-lot subdivision Habitat has been developing since 2018 at Jefferson Boulevard and Byrkit Avenue.

The Habitat program offers first-time homeowners the chance to work on building their houses and offers them the educational foundation to help finance and manage their mortgages as they work to become owners of their own homes.

Lots in the Fields at Highland subdivision are nearly all built, and Habitat has been searching for land for its next homebuilding program.

Big visit: Jimmy Carter says Mishawaka site is one of best prepared Habitat builds

“I’m proud to say we have built 115 houses in Mishawaka,” Williams said. “Habitat is nearing completion of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project subdivision at the Fields of Highland. Since we are coming to the end of that project … we do need to be looking for land for our next project.”

The property Habitat is looking at is a nine-acre tract that would have room for 40 houses if it comes to fruition, Williams said. The project is expected to cost $13 million, Williams said.

Williams touted the fact that the Habitat housing residents are tax-paying, mortgage-paying residents, and that although about 60% of Habitat houses are sold to first-time buyers in the program, about 40% are market-based homes that are sold on the open market, thus blending the neighborhood with many people with different financial backgrounds.

“I can’t tell you how many people think that our Habitat families get houses for free,” Williams said. “They don’t. They work very hard for their houses. They have a mortgage, they’re part of the community, and they pay property taxes.”

The plan is to begin to build up to 15 houses per year. Williams estimated that after the next phase of the housing program, Habitat homeowners will be adding as much as $250,000 a year in property taxes, and somewhere from 50-70 children living in these houses will be attending Mishawaka schools.

Ken Prince, director of planning and community development, said Mayor Dave Wood and he have understood that there is a serious need for workforce housing with the various economic development projects taking place in the county.

He said that since 2008, home building in the city has dropped from about 100 per year in 2008 to about 50 per year. Prince said the Habitat programs would be a significant increase in the city’s single-family home growth going forward.

The city partnership would require the Habitat program be in the McKinley corridor. In recent years, land that formerly was home to Southwest Little League had been discussed as Habitat’s next location for a housing program. That plan, however, has been scrapped for the new possible location in the McKinley corridor.

Williams also said Habitat has purchased the former Currey medical building at 524 E. McKinley Ave. for its future headquarters. He added that it also bought nearby land west of the property for future development.

Rezoning request for gas station postponed

Meanwhile, developers asking the city to rezone land at Fir and Douglas roads for a Casey’s convenience store and gasoline station asked for the matter to be postponed until the council’s July 1 meeting.

Developers have sought the rezoning despite the city’s stance that the proposed site is within the city’s safety zone for any potential future contamination to its new Juday Creek Water wellfield on Veterans Parkway northeast of the proposed site.

Email Tribune staff writer Greg Swiercz at gswiercz@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Council awards Habitat $2 million for McKinley Avenue housing project