Habitat breaks ground on new Lincoln Street home

Habitat for Humanity sup­port­ers came togeth­er on Lincoln Street Thursday after­noon to wel­come its newest part­ner fam­i­ly, the Primroses, and begin the sec­ond phase of a part­ner­ship with the city gov­ern­ment to revi­tal­ize the neighborhood.

“We are so excit­ed to part­ner with the city, and they have so gra­cious­ly giv­en us six lots to build on, so we’re going to have six lots, six homes, six new fam­i­lies,” said Mary Jo Hatchett, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Habitat for Humanity of Madison and Clark Counties.

For sev­er­al years, the non­prof­it faith-based hous­ing group has built hous­es on the west side of the street, and now it is begin­ning the sec­ond phase of the project by help­ing the Primrose fam­i­ly build their house.

Crystal and Nathan Primrose of Richmond and their 13-year-old daugh­ter, Kyrie, were intro­duced to the vol­un­teers dur­ing a ground­break­ing cer­e­mo­ny on the site of the new home.

“Being here today . . . on what is going to be our future home, it’s very emo­tion­al,” Crystal Primrose said. “I’ve already cried. It’s very much a dream come true.”

“I want to express the biggest grat­i­tude pos­si­ble,” she said, to all those who are help­ing them achieve their dream of becom­ing first-time homeowners.

“I’m just excit­ed to see where this adven­ture takes us,” she said.

Crystal is from Eastern Kentucky, and Nathan is from Florida. Their daugh­ter was born in Richmond, where they have been rent­ing a place for the past nine years.

It will be dif­fer­ent to “get to appre­ci­ate the prop­er­ty as our own,” the mom said.

Nathan and Kyrie both said they were look­ing for­ward to mov­ing to Winchester.

“I’ve lived in a lot of col­lege towns,” and those towns have a large­ly tran­sient pop­u­la­tion, he said. “I’m look­ing for­ward to expe­ri­enc­ing a town that real­ly has community.”

The fam­i­ly was impressed that the may­or, JoEllen Reed, attend­ed, and the city brought a fire truck for the celebration.

“Heck, yeah!” Kyrie said, when asked whether she was excit­ed about hav­ing a new home, which will be near her new school, Robert D. Campbell Junior High School.

Mel Jackson, who is on the staff of the Habitat affil­i­ate, intro­duced the fam­i­ly, and Bryan Kirby, the board pres­i­dent, made some remarks, say­ing that Habitat was “an amaz­ing pro­gram” that “does so much more than build houses.”

Among the many oth­ers who attend­ed were Stan Petter, oper­a­tions man­ag­er, and Mark Beauchamp, who is vol­un­teer­ing to be the gen­er­al con­trac­tor on the project.

Winchester City Commissioner Shannon Cox, who is on the board, gave a brief his­to­ry of the Lincoln Street project. He said it began 15 years ago when one of the kids he coached in foot­ball need­ed a ride home, and he want­ed Cox to drop him off some dis­tance from his house, even though he was on crutch­es. But Cox drove him up to the house, came inside and saw how run-down it was.

Afterward, Cox said, he drove over to a near­by church, parked his car, and cried.

Within three months, he and for­mer City Manager Matt Belcher had secured a Community Development Block Grant to revi­tal­ize the neighborhood.

“No one will ever have to be ashamed again for liv­ing on Lincoln Street,” Cox said.

That for­mer high school stu­dent, he men­tioned, went on to become a Marine Corps offi­cer and an embassy guard in Seoul, South Korea.

“Habitat’s vision is that every­body deserves a safe, secure, afford­able place to live,” Hatchett said.

And hav­ing a decent, afford­able home can improve people’s lives in oth­er ways.

Habitat for Humanity helps low-income fam­i­lies build their own homes by offer­ing low-inter­est, long-term mort­gages. Costs are kept low­er by using vol­un­teer labor and dis­count­ed or donat­ed mate­ri­als and pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices. Families must put in a cer­tain num­ber of “sweat equi­ty” hours, either by help­ing with con­struc­tion or help­ing the affil­i­ate in oth­er ways.

The Clark and Madison County affil­i­ate of the inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tion is look­ing for vol­un­teers. More infor­ma­tion is avail­able at www.hfhmcc.org or by call­ing the admin­is­tra­tive office in Richmond at 859−625−9208.