{"id":174799,"date":"2026-04-24T11:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174799\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T11:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:48:11","slug":"habitat-berks-olivet-launch-workforce-housing-project-in-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174799\/","title":{"rendered":"Habitat Berks, Olivet launch workforce housing project in Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

Representatives of Habitat for Humanity of Berks County and Olivet Boys and Girls Club joined Thursday to mark the start of construction on a home that will be owned by an Olivet employee.<\/p>\n

The ceremonial groundbreaking at the rear of a vacant lot at 225 W. Buttonwood St. celebrates more than the start of a new home, said Timothy J. Daley, executive director of the nonprofit that helps provide affordable homes for the local workforce population.<\/p>\n

It highlights a model of employer-supported housing that could be replicated across the region, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an extraordinary event,\u201d Daley said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tremendous example of how an employer and an employee can work together for the mutual benefit of both.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new home\u2019s future owner, Pamela Perez, was recommended to Habitat\u2019s First-Time Homebuyer Program by her employer, Olivet, he noted.<\/p>\n

Daley described the project as a model solution to mounting workforce housing challenges and the difficulty of recruiting and retaining workers amid rising housing costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHabitat\u2019s role here is to be the resource,\u201d he said. \u201cThe real winner here is the employer and the employee relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick Perez, CEO of Olivet, echoed that sentiment, emphasizing the organization\u2019s investment not only in youth but in its staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take a lot of pride in our staff,\u201d Perez said. \u201cIt is very important that we give our people the platform that once they elevate themselves that they are able to sustain that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA Habitat for Humanity of Berks County home is under construction at 225 W. Buttonwood St. on Thursday, April 23, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n

Federal support is also helping fuel Habitat\u2019s broader work, said Sabrina McLaughlin Walensky, regional representative for U.S. Sen. John Fetterman.<\/p>\n

Fetterman\u2019s office in February<\/a> announced nearly $300 million in funding to support 121 projects in Pennsylvania, including $1.6 million to Habitat Berks to help revitalize the Ninth and Douglass streets neighborhood by acquisition of property, construction of new affordable housing and other efforts to eliminate blight.<\/p>\n

The neighborhood in the vicinity of the new Reading High School Innovation Academy is one of three areas targeted by Habitat. The others are around the Buttonwood Street gateway and Goggleworks Center for the Arts.<\/p>\n

Walensky described the appropriation as part of an effort to direct federal dollars toward projects, such as Habitat\u2019s, that aim to strengthen communities through homeownership opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Fetterman) was very happy to make an investment here in the city of Reading to help you in your work,\u201d Walensky said.<\/p>\n

For Richard Ehst, Habitat Berks board president, the nonprofit\u2019s mission is practical and deeply personal.<\/p>\n

A retired banker who has been involved with Habitat Berks for more than a dozen years, Ehst said providing affordable housing to working families is among the most meaningful forms of community service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing greater, I think, in this life, than to provide affordable housing to folks who are in the workplace already,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ehst pointed to the broader impact such efforts can have in a city like Reading, where there are hundreds of blighted properties that could be rehabilitated to meet the housing shortage.<\/p>\n

According to the city\u2019s 2024-28 Equity Plan, Reading faces a severe housing shortage driven by a supply-demand gap, with rents rising over 60% in recent years and a need for 410 new units within five years to meet demand.<\/p>\n

Reading\u2019s 2019 Housing and Blight strategy identified nearly 300 blighted properties with another 300 to 500 at risk or in serious need of repair.<\/p>\n

Ehst said Habitat hopes to partner with the city in a program that would expand the nonprofit\u2019s access to such houses for rehabilitation or replacement with infill housing and future sale to working residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to put efforts like that on steroids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Buttonwood project is a tangible example of what can happen when nonprofits, employers and government align, Daley said, and turn an empty lot into a foundation for stability, and potentially, a model for future housing solutions in Reading and Berks County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Representatives of Habitat for Humanity of Berks County and Olivet Boys and Girls Club joined Thursday to mark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-174799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}