Some 25 volunteers from the Raccoon Valley Bank and the Perry community kicked off the Habitat for Humanity Blitz Build effort Monday morning, raising the wall on the new house at 1726 Eighth St. in Perry.
The weeklong Blitz Build is focused on the first new-construction home built by the Habitat affiliate in Perry and is one of four planned for the lots along Eighth Street between Dewey Avenue and North Street.
Omar Padilla, director of the Dallas County Habitat for Humanity, said construction will continue all week in an effort to get a roof over the house. Additional volunteer dates will occur throughout the spring and summer, Padilla said.
Each of the four homes will be sold to a qualified, low-income family, who will purchase the home with a low-interest mortgage through the Raccoon Valley Bank.
Padilla said Dallas County Habitat for Humanity has assisted 84 homeowners with needed repairs since restarting the Rock the Block program in 2014 and has seen one family move into their own home and another start building a new home. The 100-house mark will be reached this year, he said.
Financial and volunteer support for the homeownership program is being provided by the Raccoon Valley Bank, First Presbyterian Church of Dallas Center, Dallas County Community Foundation, Great Western Bank, Alliant Energy and the Bock Family Foundation.
Habitat’s home-building efforts will soon been complemented by a building-trades program at Perry High School, which aims to build eight starter houses over the next eight years on land donated by the city of Perry on the north side of Otley Ave. between 10th and 12th streets as well as on two lots east of the current Hamlin Bell site.
