1. Help STOP Habitat for Humanities Matthews North Carolina

3. Habitat for Humanities Matthews North Carolina Affiliate has for the past 18 months refused to allow a mixed income medium density housing project supported by many local residents to move forward. The proposed development is composed of courtyard housing intended to appeal to a mixed income households from Brazilian, Hispanic, Asian, Indian and European Heritage. The 17 attached dwellings not only feature sustainable construction but do so on a sustainable site. Historic problems with wildlife retention, storm water management and the loss of native plants are all to be addressed by a shared wildlife habitat occupying nearly the of the site.

Habitat owns a central piece of land in the Crestdale neighborhood of Matthews, which, for engineering reasons, prevents the formation of an innovative sustainable medium density housing project that the Town of Matthews Changed its zoning ordinance to make possible. While they obtained the land legally they have:
•Resisted efforts to exchange the land for other property that was available to them.
•Denied efforts to buy the property from them by setting arbitrary deadlines and requirements after a deal had been reached.
•Misrepresented to the Towns’s Mayor, Jim Taylor, And the Town Planning Director, Kathi Ingrish, their willingness to cooperate.
•Ignored a report issued by a task force of the American Planning Association which called for a limit to the number of additional low income housing units built in the neighborhood. For more information about the Crestdale project and the visiting team members, visit: www.planning.org/communityassistance/teams/matthews/ The study reports that 42% of the homes in the Crestdale Neighborhood are Habitat homes that will be permanently low income. The continuation of this concentration will create an adverse environment for all the residents of the neighborhood including the low income familes. The report also suggested that mixed income developments would be the preferable form of development from this point forward to prevent the entire neighborhood from becoming a permanent low income housing area.
•Refused all invitations to participate in neighborhood planning efforts to better locate habitat homes and allow for mixed income development.