New homes for former North trouble spots

By Stephen McKinley

A San Francisco-based mortgage company last week committed itself to financing the building of cross-community housing in Belfast.

PMI Mortgage Insurance Company has already donated £100,000 to Habitat for Humanity, a charity that fosters reconciliation and peaceful cohabitation in economically-depressed areas and world trouble spots through helping local people to build their own homes.

Families and volunteer experts build the houses together, and local families are expected to put in no fewer than 400 hours of sweat equity. Once completed, the houses are sold to the residents at no profit through an interest-free mortgage.

This is the first time that PMI has become involved in the project, but Habitat for Humanity in Northern Ireland has already completed two small projects, one of 11 houses at Iris Close in Catholic West Belfast, and a second project of 16 houses in the Protestant Glencairn Estate. The Iris Close residents helped their neighbors with the Glencairn development. Habitat believes that striving together builds more than just houses, but trust and friendship as well.

Speaking about PMI’s interest in Northern Ireland, spokesperson Glenn Corso said that the company had supported Habitat for Humanity projects around the world, and had recently opened a Dublin office.

"We wanted to expand home-owning opportunities for people with almost no cash or resources of their own," he said, and described the step-by-step process for building and acquiring a house.

"The sponsor, Habitat for Humanity, brings an experienced contractor on site who pours the foundations and other professionals do the electrical wiring and plumbing. But the local residents help with the wooden frame construction, and usually the houses are completed within a week."

Further information can be found at the Habitat web site, www.habitatni.co.uk.