Cincinnati Habitat begins two houses, dedicates another

Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity kicked off the construction of two new houses on Saturday in Avondale, and dedicated a completed house in Price Hill on Sunday.

Habitat is teaming up with the Eastside Coalition of Churches and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans to build two new homes at 3454 Hallwood Place with Jonathan and Ashley Cephas and their two children, and at 3458 Hallwood Place with Casandra Engleman and her two sons.

Both constructed in the Blair style, these will be the 31st and 32nd builds for Eastside, Habitat's oldest building group; 3454 Hallwood Place will be the sixth Habitat build for Thrivent.

On Sunday, Habitat celebrated the completion of its build at 2848 Claypole Avenue in Price Hill.

Cincinnati Christian University (CCU), the Citi Foundation, and the Westfed Coalition of Churches built the new house with and for new homeowners Te'Anna and Curtis Jones III and their four children.

Habitat sold the house to the Jones family with a 0 percent, 20-year, interest-free mortgage, making their monthly mortgage payment approximately $400.

The family was previously paying $475 per month for a two-bedroom home that didn't provide enough space for their growing family.

Curtis Jones works as a supervisor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and also works part-time at Arby's.

Located within a block of CCU's campus, the university bought the blighted house that used to occupy the property and razed it, then students, faculty and staff helped build the new house.

In a further demonstration of the university's commitment to the neighborhood, CCU president David Faust recently had his own house built a few doors down from the Habitat site.

The house is the 21st built by Westfed and the third house that Citi has helped to fund.

Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity has built over 150 homes in 21 Cincinnati neighborhoods.

In 2009, Habitat is building 11 houses throughout the area.

Photo: Cincinnati Christian University president Dr. David Faust had a chance to meet and welcome new homeowners Curtis and Te'anna Jones and their children at Cincinnati Habitat's construction kickoff last summer. The construction is now complete and the home was dedicated April 5. Courtesy of Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity.

Previous reading on BC:
Wrecking Cincinnati, 1/22/09 (1/22/09)