An empty lot on East 34th Street in Lorain held nothing but dirt Monday morning. By the end of the day, a two-story home stood in its place, nearly ready for a family to move in — the city's first modular home built under a growing affordable housing push.
The home advanced from empty lot to almost move-in ready in a single day Monday, according to Cleveland 19 News. Unlike a traditionally built house constructed on-site, this one arrived as four sections built off-site and indoors, then assembled on the lot. John Litten, president and CEO of Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity, said the house went up in less than an hour once the sections arrived.
The new home measures more than 2,000 square feet and includes a basement — what Habitat for Humanity has described as one of its largest homes built. That scale lines up with an earlier Greater Cleveland Habitat project on East 34th Street, where a modular two-story build was reported by cleveland19.com to exceed 2,000 square feet and stand as the organization's largest per-home investment to date. The same outlet reported that most of the modular structure is built offsite, with only the foundation and plumbing installed on location, and that the home is funded through a combination of federal, state, local and private dollars.
A Partnership Built On More Than Lumber
The project brought together Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity, the city of Lorain, the Lorain County Land Bank and Praxia Partners. Matt Kusznir, director of the city's Department of Building, Housing and Planning, said the project will create opportunities for families and help the incoming family pursue the American dream.
Officials expect the incoming family to move in by Christmas. As part of the arrangement, the city of Lorain will waive property taxes on the home for 15 years, according to city officials.
According to the Morning Journal, the homes being built at 1819 E. 34th St. in Lorain are each expected to be valued at about $200,000 and contain approximately 2,026 square feet. The outlet also reported that Greater Cleveland Habitat completed 50 critical home repairs in Lorain over the prior two years, laying groundwork for the larger construction push now underway.
Zero-Interest Mortgages and Sweat Equity
The project is part of an affordable lending program in which homeowners pay no mortgage interest and are not charged builder's costs. Program applicants must meet certain income requirements. Greater Cleveland Habitat describes its broader homeownership program as selling newly constructed and rehabilitated homes at no profit, with zero-percent-interest mortgages, minimal down payments and closing costs, and monthly housing payments capped at no more than 30% of a household's monthly income, according to Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity.
Applicants must also be living in inadequate or subsidized housing, or paying more than 30% of their monthly income toward housing costs, per the organization's published criteria. Those accepted into the program are expected to complete between 200 and 250 hours of sweat equity, must be first-time homebuyers, and cannot have had a bankruptcy or foreclosure discharge within the previous three years, the organization's homeownership criteria state.
More Homes Planned Citywide
Kusznir said Lorain plans more than 20 similar homes over the next several years. That expansion follows a regional initiative announced earlier this year, in which the Lorain County Land Bank partnered with the cities of Lorain, Elyria and Oberlin alongside Greater Cleveland Habitat on an affordable-housing effort tied to Ohio's Welcome Home Ohio program, which provides up to $22.8 million per fiscal year in grant funding for residential purchase, construction and rehabilitation, according to cleveland.com. That regional effort has focused on reinvestment in communities that have seen limited new housing development in recent decades.
Modular construction has become a growing part of Greater Cleveland Habitat's strategy beyond Lorain. The organization previously began building 19 modular homes throughout Cleveland, with the first two debuting in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood — smaller, single-story homes measuring 1,350 square feet with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and full basements, cleveland.com reported. For now, though, the East 34th Street build stands as Lorain's first modular home project of its kind, with Habitat and its partners hoping it becomes a template rather than a one-off.
