Posted November 11, 2023

By ALLEN MINCEY

Posted November 11, 2023

By ALLEN MINCEY

When Habitat for Humanity of Cleveland decided to build a multi-family quadplex, they knew there would be new issues they would have to address, but they did so, and now, four families have new homes in Morelock Meadows.

That success not only impressed local officials, but other Habitat affiliates in Tennessee, leading both Executive Director Tammy Johnson and Construction Director David Cowan to speak at the state’s Habitat for Humanity conference.

It also caught the attention of officials in Ohio, and in October, the pair was asked to speak at the combined 14th annual Habitat for Humanity of Ohio conference. Their presentation was titled “Benefits and Challenges of Building Multi-Unit Homes.”

“Tammy and David will share their experience of navigating change to their affiliate and the strategies they employed to troubleshoot and solve problems along the way,” read the introduction to their presentation in conference literature.

Cowan said when the Cleveland Habitat organization began to talk about the quadplex, in his mind he analyzed the benefits versus the challenges.

“I could only list one benefit against several challenges because … well, it is very challenging,” he said. “But the one benefit supersedes all the challenges and that is to have more families in their new homes. That's our sole existence, so then, it doesn't matter what the challenges are.”

Those challenges were met, and the quadplex was dedicated in July. Cowan and Johnson said the challenges that appeared and were addressed will now help in the future, including the second quadplex currently in construction at Morelock Meadows.

Officials in Ohio who are considering multi-family construction projects wanted to learn how to meet these challenges.

“We presented this session at our Habitat Tennessee State Conference: the benefits and challenges of building multi-unit homes,” Johnson explained. “Ohio caught wind of it and invited us to come there.

“It ended up being the highest attended session at the Tennessee State Conference and then again at the Ohio State Conference,” she added, stating “there's big interest in the Habitat world, how to learn how to do multi-unit housing, because there being less land and challenges with getting some subcontractors, and, of course, increase costs.”

In fact, at the Ohio presentation, it was standing room only.

Both Johnson and Cowan said they were glad to share their experiences with those attending both sessions, and said some from both Tennessee and Ohio have reached out to them for more information, some even planning to visit Cleveland and see the work here.

“Lots of people build multifamily habits, and Habitat being one of the world's largest general contractors the world over has a huge network where we are all after the same goal, which is affordable housing,” Cowan said. “So we all share ideas, and we all share struggles. We all share things that did right and things that we didn't do this right? We can share things like this is exactly what it costs us.”

He said in the for-profit world, “there’s a lot of secret keeping, you know, people don’t necessarily want to share those things, to give themselves an advantage.”

Not so with Habitat for Humanity.

“At the [Ohio] conference, we had a gentleman who said he wants to come down and visit and we're like, ‘Come on. We'll show you.’ We're happy to show our work and host people,” Johnson said.

Cowan said the work being done at the second quadplex at Morelock Meadows could be completed by January 2024, and following that will be two triplexes and a four-bedroom home, all at the subdivision located on Foster Lane near Blythe-Bower Elementary School.

He said the subdivision should be complete by 2025.