Nearly $200,000 in grant funding will help Habitat for Humanity complete a pair of major Wilmington projects.
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh and WSFS Bank announced Tuesday they're giving Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County $196,000 for its Simonds Garden and Prices Run revitalization projects.
Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County Kevin Smith CEO says that the Price’s Run project started in 2008 when they purchased the one acre property that is part of the Mill Stone brownfield revitalization initiative. The project has since grown into the largest in the organization’s history with a total of 21 new town homes.
“We have finished 12 houses and we have 9 here that we are going to be finishing by the end of August," said Smith. The $140,000 grant from FHLBank will fund the construction of the remaining 9 homes as well as the refurbishing of 5 pre-existing town homes. The remaining $53,000 will go to the Simonds Gardens project which includes the interior and exterior restoration of 14 homes in the post World War II neighborhood.
Smith praised FHLBank for their grant but says that there is more to these projects that often goes unrecognized.
"It’s the entire Delaware Community that comes together to make both the financial investment and the volunteer commitment," said Smith.
The FHLBank Pittsburgh is a federally chartered consortium of banks that funds the grants through profits that it makes on private capital investments. Representative Carney commended the FHLBank for its work, adding he hopes that the federal government will make similar community investments in the future.
“We are going to have to cut spending in certain ways but we need to do it in a smarter way than we are doing it as opposed to across the board," said Carney. "There are better, smarter ways that we should do it. If you cut spending that’s not as effective in other areas then you can make investments in communities like the ones that we are seeing right here.”
The grants were given to Habitat for Humanity New Castle County through WSFS bank, a member bank of The Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh.
