The house suffered a devastating fire that destroyed much of the interior, but over the past three years it has been restored with the help of students.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — After three years of renovation, a home on Wiconsico Street in Harrisburg has opened as permanent affordable housing.
City and nonprofit leaders gathered Thursday to dedicate the newly renovated home, which will be given to a woman who was previously in the Brethren Housing Association's transitional housing program after struggling with homelessness.
Executive director Kate Gillis Hanna said women who move into the permanent low-cost housing will never have to pay more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs.
“[This] “It means they'll never fall into housing poverty, which is nearly impossible in this market,” Gillis Hanna said. “So we're taking small steps to address the affordable housing crisis in our community.”
The home suffered a devastating fire that destroyed much of the interior and has been restored over the past three years with the help of students from Dauphin County Technical School.
“When I first got there, I had to crawl through three feet of trash, mold and burnt ash to get in the door,” said Tony Maxwell, a senior at Dauphin County Technical School. “It was tough.”
Maxwell first began renovating the house during her freshman year of college, and was amazed to see how much the property had changed over the years.
“Once the drywall was done and it didn't look like just framework and sticks, our opinion really changed because it looked so nice and it looked almost finished,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell said he is proud that thanks to their hard work, the family can finally call the place their home.
“We put our blood, sweat and tears into this project,” he said. “Now, our efforts have really paid off because someone has recognized that this is worth living here.”
Materials used during construction were donated by community partners, and the Brethren Housing Association acquired the land with a grant from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.
