HARRISBURG, Pa. — After three years of renovations, a house on Wiconsico Street in Harrisburg has opened as a permanent affordable home.
On Thursday, city and nonprofit leaders came together for a ribbon cutting of the newly renovated home. The house is being given away to a woman, who was in the Brethren Housing Association's transitional housing program after struggling with homelessness.
Executive director Kait Gillis-Hanna said the woman moving into the permanent affordable home will never have to pay more than 30% of her income on housing.
“[This] means that they will never be house-poor, and in this market that’s nearly impossible," said Gillis-Hanna. "So we’re taking tiny steps to address the affordable housing crisis in our community.”
The house was involved in a massive fire that destroyed most of the building’s interior. Over the past three years, the house was restored with the help of students at the Dauphin County Technical School.
“When we first got there, you couldn’t enter the door without crawling over three feet of trash, mold, and burnt ash," said Tony Maxwell, a senior at Dauphin County Technical School. "It was a lot.”
Maxwell said he first began working on the house as a freshman. He said he was amazed to see how much the building has changed over the years.
“Once the drywall was up and we didn’t see it as bare bones and sticks, it really changed our opinions because it looked so clean and looked like we were almost there," said Maxwell.
Maxwell said he's proud that all of their hard work is allowing a family to finally call a place their home.
"We put our blood, sweat, and tears into this project," he said. "Now that someone has deemed it worthy to be living in, it really puts our effort to good use."
Materials used during the construction were donated by community partners, and the Brethren Housing Association acquired the property using a grant from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.