EAST PALO ALTO: 12 families to get new Habitat homes

Saturday ceremony to celebrate work on 24-unit East Palo Alto complex

The keys to the final 12 units of the 24 condominiums on Gloria Way in East Palo Alto will be given to the new homeowners in a dedication ceremony Saturday.

The Peninsula Habitat for Humanity affordable housing project is nearing completion, and the last 12 families may move into their new homes later this year or early next year. "We hope to get as much done as we can by Christmas," said Mark Moulton, Habitat's executive director.

Construction on the housing adjacent to City Hall began in October 1995, Moulton said.

The families buying the units have provided labor for their construction, as have more than 5,000 other people, Moulton said. In all, more than 90,000 hours of volunteer labor have been donated. Costs of the materials, which will end up being about $2.8 million, has been mostly covered by donations. Moulton said the group, which has collected just under $2.7 million, is still accepting donations.

The housing was originally to be replacement housing for families displaced by the Gateway redevelopment project. But delays in the Gateway project meant that the Gloria Way housing was opened up to other low-income East Palo Alto families, too. The 24 families did not have to make any down payments for the housing, for which they will pay between $90,000 and $130,000 each for two-, three- and four-bedroom units. The 24 families were chosen by lottery.

--Don Kazak

DESIGNER, PLEASE PUT THIS IN A BOX AT THE END

Cermony information

The dedication ceremonies at Gloria Way will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday and it will feature remarks by Rep. Ann Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto City Council member Rose Jacobs Gibson.

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