Aug. 30, 2024
BY JOHN BAILEY
Having enough emergency, transitional and affordable housing is a complex challenge for any community to face, but for a neighborhood in Hickory a piece of that puzzle has been found.
This past Thursday, the Catawba County United Way attended Habitat for Humanity of Catawba Valley’s (HHCV) groundbreaking ceremony for The Cottages at Ridgeview in Hickory.
Back in 2017, HHCV Executive Director Mitzi Gellman said they weren’t sure they’d ever have a single home built.
“Now, as you look around there are nine houses either completed with people living in them or one just waiting to be finished,” Gellman said during the ceremony. “And with three more cottages in this space, it’ll finish our work in this area…an area that had been filled with abandoned houses.
“We are delighted to restore community once again to this beautiful neighborhood of Ridgeview.”
Affordable housing is a growing crisis throughout the state.
The State of the Nation’s Housing 2024, published by Harvard University, showed housing costs are increasingly out of reach, with home prices up 5.6% in 2023 and 47% since the beginning of 2020 while rents remain high, up 26% since 2020, according to the report.
And the impact goes beyond the obvious, affecting the health of families, the lives of students who may not know where they’ll be sleeping the next night, Gellman said during Thursday’s ceremony.
“We know now, that housing affects our community in ways we don’t normally understand unless you’re an employer with employees trying to find an affordable place to live in our community.”
This project has been a collaborative effort with Habitat of Humanity for Catawba Valley partnering with the City of Hickory, local businesses, agencies and area residents.
“What you’re creating here is really special,” Lindsay Keisler,President/CEO of The Chamber of Catawba County said. “Not only are these affordable homes and safe places for people to live and raise their families, but it’s also built by the community.”