Oradell-based Habitat Project Receives $100,000 Grant

Habitat for Humanity of Bergen County was recently awarded a $100,000 affordable housing grant through the TD Charitable Foundation’s Housing for Everyone grant competition. The grant will be used for Habitat Bergen’s Oradell project.  

This upcoming Habitat Bergen project, due to begin next month, will be a silver LEED-certified effort. Creating on the corner of Westervelt and Lake Streets in Oradell, the project is focused on sustainable building (less wasted material, more insulation, etc) that would reduce the energy costs for the future homeowners.

The will each contain three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a one-car garage and a driveway.

Habitat for Humanity was given one of the lots by the borough and the other was purchased with a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant.

This year’s Housing for Everyone theme was Building for the Future, focusing on three critical areas in affordable housing: 

• Energy efficiency, including weatherization initiatives, HVAC improvements, or implementation of alternative or renewable energy sources; 
• Capacity building, including the expansion of programmatic efforts or staff development for organizations that provide affordable housing services for low-to-moderate-income individuals or in low-to-moderate-income communities. Infrastructure investment to expand services provided will also be considered; 
• And new unit creation, where organizations focus their efforts on the creation of new affordable housing units that benefit low-to-moderate-income individuals or communities. 

The Housing for Everyone grant competition is one of the TD Charitable Foundation’s most widely known signature programs. The competition invites local non-profit organizations from Maine to Florida to submit proposals outlining their plans and initiatives to support and provide affordable housing initiatives in their communities. Twenty-five organizations throughout TD Bank’s footprint from Maine to Florida were awarded a $100,000 grant for a total grant donation of $2.5 million in 2011.