Affordable housing continues to be an ongoing issue in the Inland Empire and the state of California as a whole. With that in mind, Habitat for Humanity has broken ground on a three-home building site in San Bernardino designed for low-income residents.
On Wednesday, representatives from Habitat for Humanity, Bank of America, and the city of San Bernardino attended a groundbreaking event.
The site for the new homes is near the Carousel Mall District, on 9th and H Street.
Al Arguello is the Inland Empire Market President for Bank of America, which donated $30,000 to Habitat for the project.
Arguello: “Any time that we can partner with an organization that makes the dream of home ownership for San Bernardino area families, we're there to help.”
The homes will be manufactured in a factory, but then be placed on the foundation built by volunteers. Then, volunteers will do things like landscaping and working on the insides of the homes.
David Hahn is the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity San Bernardino. He says local volunteers as well as prospective homeowners themselves participate in this process.
Hahn: “That's a big volunteer opportunity for a lot of our people that we have typically come in and do volunteer work. For example, Bank of America volunteers, Wells Fargo volunteers, Pacific Premier Bank, a lot of community volunteer groups that want to take part in assisting and getting this home ready, which is basically taking the dream of homeownership and turning it into a reality for these three families.”
Habitat for Humanity has raised 40 houses in the Inland Empire since 1992, including these three new homes.
Construction is expected to begin in March and conclude by the end of the year.
