Disaster Recovery Team to Fund Habitat House

The remnants of Hurricane Harvey recovery are going help fund the first new home in the Camp Street Cottages development.

Habitat for Humanity last week announced the project, which will create a community of ten small homes on a tract near Randolph Recreation Center.

Habitat leaders Patrick Caballero and Kenny Couch met with the Fayette County Disaster Recovery Team on Thursday, explaining how the project will address housing needs, particularly for senior citizens.

Afterwards, the DRT board voted to donate $30,000 toward the Habitat project – the approximate cost of one “shell” for a house.

According to Couch, the Camp Street homes will be manufactured units, with the “shells” bought, then finished out by volunteer Habitat labor.

“Habitat and the DRT have worked together ever since Hurricane Harvey hit and the DRT was first formed,” said Larry Jackson, president of the DRT board.

“We were partners in recovery, and we are happy to be able to help in the Camp Street project,” he added. “It’s just really appropriate that we target these remaining funds toward housing in La Grange.”

With donations to Habitat and to the City of La Grange’s park project in Hope Hill, “we are moving toward zero in our bank account,” Jackson said. “It’s been almost exactly four years since Harvey flooded La Grange, and it’s just amazing what has been accomplished here by so many different volunteers and donors. The need for affordable housing is still great, and we are very happy to see efforts that will continue to address those needs.”

Habitat is partnering with the Community Action Agency to develop and manage Camp Street Cottages. Caballero, president of Fayette County Habitat for Humanity, said CCA will have a support office on-site at the facility. There will also be a fellowship hall for the residents, he said.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall in August 2017. On Sept. 3, 2017, Gov. Greg Abbott estimated that damages from Harvey would be between $150 and $180 billion in Texas alone, making it the most costly disaster in the state’s history.

Locally, volunteers and non profit groups like Samaritan’s Purse, American Red Cross, Salvation Army and Mennonite Disaster Services teamed up to clean up debris, repair homes, build new houses and provide economic relief to Harvey survivors.

After the DRT completed its construction and repair work here, the board donated all the tools and materials they had accumulated to Habitat.

“We’re still using them,” Couch told the DRT board.