In August of 1994, Lancaster Lebanon Habitat for Humanity (known then as Lancaster Area Habitat for Humanity) broke ground on its most ambitious project at that point in the affiliate’s history.
At the time, less than a decade since its founding, the Lancaster Habitat had built 21 homes – mostly rehab projects in Lancaster City – but the scope of this new project would expand the affiliate’s impact exponentially by creating 70 new, safe and affordable Habitat homes on an almost 10-acre parcel of land in the southwest corner of the city in and around Euclid Avenue, Hager Street and Emerald Drive.
The name of the community would be Emerald Valley, and it remains one of the crown jewels in Lancaster Lebanon Habitat’s four decadeslong history of building affordable homes.
“That was a big deal in Lancaster to build that many houses,” says Lancaster Lebanon Habitat co-founder Mike Mumma. “Emerald Valley established us as a player (in the construction field) for sure.”
The goal was to build a community of Habitat homes, which would include 62 units in the form of 31 duplexes and eight attached homes, at a pace of around eight homes per year. And, in many ways, the Emerald Valley building initiative foreshadowed our current vision of “creating a community where homeownership never feels out of reach.”
“Emerald Valley was a big deal,” says Jake Toews, co-founder and first treasurer of the Lancaster Habitat affiliate. “We wanted to focus on trying to build community. And it was nice because people were identifying as a group. You would hear about somebody’s kids who were starting to do better in school and moving on to college. And you’d realize this was a thriving community.”
Richard Good, of Good’s Furniture and a former president of Lancaster Area Habitat, made a large donation to get the project off the ground and his initial financial contribution inspired many other donors from across the community to get involved with the project including contracting companies, church groups, civic organizations and local businesses. The work on the Emerald Valley project was completed almost entirely by volunteers.
Even TV personality Oprah Winfrey helped create some buzz when she encouraged her viewers to help improve their communities by getting involved in their own local Habitat builds. In fact, one of the houses built in Emerald Valley during a five-day building blitz from June 22-26, 1998 was dubbed the “Oprah House.”
“We did four houses (during the 1998 blitz),” says Fran McCaffrey, who was the executive director during the majority of the Emerald Valley build. “That was fast. We had four companies volunteer their carpenters to get it started. At seven o’clock on Monday morning, they came in, and by noon the houses were framed. They were having a ball. They were they were challenging each other’s companies to see who could get it done fastest. Those boys were flying.”
In true Habitat spirit, the Emerald Valley homebuyer partner families worked on their sweat equity hours to build their and their neighbor’s future homes.
“Completing sweat equity hours with my neighbors and (volunteers from the) community gave me a sense of pride, belonging, and empowerment,” says Greta Perez, one of the Emerald Valley homeowners. “I really got to know my future neighbors. We were a tight knit neighborhood, helping each other when needed.”
Perez was able to move out of a small apartment on a dangerous, crime-infested street, where gunfire occasionally rang out, into a new beautiful home in a welcoming neighborhood.
“Habitat homeownership provided me and my daughter immediate safety,” says Perez. “Having a safe neighborhood to raise my daughter was the catalyst for our success. It allowed me to return to college and get my associates (degree) in nursing and eventually my bachelor’s degree. I graduated magna cum laude. My daughter was able to further her education by getting her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.”
The final two Emerald Valley units, including the affiliate’s 100th home, were dedicated in July of 2005. Habitat’s efforts to build the Emerald Valley community ended up providing beautiful and affordable homes for nearly 100 adults and more than 140 children