Two houses demolished, set to be rebuilt
After just completing two housing builds in Clinton, the Fayetteville Area Habitat for Humanity (FAHFH) is already back in Sampson County working on the next project.
This time, the FAHFH has partnered with the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management to rebuild two new homes in Clinton for hurricane-affected families through the Disaster Recovery Homeowner Repairs and Reconstruction Program. It is a program that provides funding to homeowners to rehabilitate disaster damaged residences.
The project sites are located at 1106 Phillips St. and 502 Stetson St., which currently belong to Author Mathis and Alice Spell, respectively. As part of these projects, FAHFH will demolish the two houses then rebuild them, as opposed to starting from scratch like the previous project.
The groundbreaking demo ceremony was held on Wednesday, and the second was set to take place sometime after lunch on Thursday.
As for what made FAHFH want to pursue this route for its next project, the agency shared information in a press release.
“While most families remember Hurricane Mathews and Florence as a distant memory from six to eight years ago, there are families dealing with the damage done by the storms still to this day,” the FAHFH stated. “For two families in Sampson County, their homes are a daily reminder of storms that hit our state so many years ago.”
The North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management has partnered with Fayetteville Area Habitat for Humanity (FAHFH) to help storm-affected families rebuild. The state of North Carolina has funded the Disaster Recovery project, which will allow FAHFH to demolish the storm-damaged homes and build brand-new homes in their place.
“For these two families, the damage to their homes was so substantial that the FAHFH home repair program was not an option,” the release continued. “With funding through the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management, the organization can rebuild their homes at no cost to the homeowners. This is a special project for FAHFH to partner with North Carolina to help those in need of safe housing.”
The Fayetteville Area Habitat for Humanity noted they are also asking the local community to join the effort in helping the two storm-affected families. This can be done by volunteering on the build sites and or donating to help reduce the cost of the build.
“Every dollar saved by collecting donations and using volunteer hours will be used to help more storm-affected families in the community with the partnership between North Carolina and FAHFH,” a statement from FAHFH said.
Anyone interested in donating or volunteering are asked to please send an email to their Director of Marketing at Marketing@fayettevillenchabitat.org
Reach Michael B. Hardison at 910-249-4231. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.