Students strengthen town ties with new Habitat-Princeton project

Habitat-Princeton is primed to drop the hammer and begin renovations on a new house in Princeton Township sometime in the next few months.

The house — a 2,800 square-foot duplex — is located at 52 Leigh Ave in the Township. A member of one of the two families who will live in the house once completed has been a University employee for four years, said Peter Madison, who is heading up the project.

"We first came across this home when it was being sold because the owners were moving to Arizona," Madison said. "Princeton Township acquired it and agreed to sell it to us cheap."

Since buying the property, Habitat has held several events where University students and local church organizations cleaned and prepared the site for renovation.

Habitat officials are now waiting for a building permit, which they hope to receive within the next few weeks. Once that happens, Madison said he expects renovation to begin in late January and continue for about one year.

"It is actually a very unusual building," Madison said. "It has a flat roof, and we think that originally the first floor was used as a shop while the second level was used for living. What we plan to do is divide the building in half with a firewall, thereby creating two homes."

Jill Venema '01, who has volunteered with Habitat's program in Trenton, said she is very excited about the Leigh Avenue project.

"I want to work on the Leigh Avenue project because seeing the actual completion of a home from the start to the time the family actually moves in is such an amazing process," she said. "I once visited a home I worked on and the upkeep was amazing. The family really took a lot of pride in ownership and that gave me great joy."

Created with the goal of providing affordable housing in Princeton, Habitat-Princeton was founded in 1997 with the help of Habitat for Humanity Trenton — the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International.

Madison said the group plays an important role in the Princeton community.

"Recently, there has been a large overcrowding of the Guatemalan population," Madison said. "These people often rent homes, and because the rent is so high, this leads them to crowd into one place . . . One of the goals of Habitat-Princeton is to help alleviate this problem."

"Through the Habitat program, both families will be able to get no-interest mortgages from Habitat through sweat equity," Madison said. "What this means is that in return for the mortgages, the families make a contribution into the Habitat program either by working on their own home or on one of Habitat's other projects."

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In the past, several Princeton students, like Venema, have worked with Habitat. Madison said he anticipates between 20 to 30 volunteers for this project.

"Habitat has greatly benefited from the efforts of the University students, who are organized within a campus Habitat organization that each week arranges student volunteers," said Tom Leyden, one of the leaders of Habitat-Princeton.