Habitat starts new subdivision in West Asheville

Habitat Starts New Subdivision Thanks in Part to City and County Grants

Neighborhood will honor Warren Haynes’ commitment to Habitat

This July, Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity will begin building a cul-de-sac of 25 single-family Arts & Crafts style homes off Johnston Boulevard in West Asheville. The neighborhood of Green Built NC-certified homes is expected to be complete by the end of 2016 and will be referred to as Hudson Hills.

Asheville Habitat purchased the Johnston Boulevard property in 2009, but only recently received funding to begin infrastructure work. “Our work is both capital and time intensive. We always need to be looking for land at least 3-5 years in advance to ensure we have available building lots for future Habitat homes,” said Lew Kraus, Executive Director.

Thanks to grants and loans from the Asheville Regional Housing Consortium, through the Home Investment Partnerships Program funded by Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Buncombe County Affordable Housing Services Program, Habitat was able to recently complete the infrastructure work, including grading, extending water and sewer lines, paving the street and installing sidewalks. Habitat volunteer crews will begin working on the site on July 7^th.

The subdivision name – Hudson Hills - was selected by Warren Haynes and his wife Stefani Scamardo in honor of their son, Hudson. Habitat offered Haynes and Scamardo the naming rights to recognize their long-standing commitment to Habitat through Warren Haynes Presents: The Annual Christmas Jam. The street – Soulshine Court - was also named in their honor. About the name, Haynes remarked, “Soulshine is a song that resonates with many people and it's particularly meaningful to me because it was inspired by my father. He worked hard as a single dad to raise me and my brothers in Asheville, so it’s fitting that a street named Soulshine Court will be in my hometown and that it will be a place that 25 families will call home.”

In addition to this new subdivision, work continues on a 17-house subdivision in Swannanoa and a recently started home on Jeffress Avenue in Shiloh, stretching Habitat’s building program across three quadrants of the county simultaneously.