Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity is celebrating its 100th!

Not anniversary. It’s 100th house in Colorado Springs.

That’s 100 affordable houses for the working poor.

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Habitat opened its Pikes Peak-area operations in 1986.

Over the next 11 years it built 25 houses, relying on an all-volunteer staff and an annual budget of less than $100,000.

In 1997, Habitat hired Paul Johnson as its executive director and its first paid employee.

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Johnson has overseen sweeping changes in the nonprofit organization’s operations. 

He added a handful of professionals who found sponsors and contributors as well as scouting out properties to rehab, vacant lots to build on and families to buy them.

As the inventory of single lots in Colorado Springs disappeared, Johnson and Habitat turned to larger pieces of property for construction. The first was a 1.3-acre parcel in the Mill Street neighborhood south of downtown.

Habitat achieved savings by clustering its projects. It could move from house-to-house quicker. Plus it could rent one portable potty and rolling trash dumper among other savings.

Then it bought 10 acres near Woodmen Road and Powers Boulevard and launched Woodmen Vistas subsdivision.

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Habitat is building 36 homes there and its partner, Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust is building 31 more.

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So far, Habitat has built a dozen. 

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The 100th house will be the lucky 13th and two or three more are poised to start soon.

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 In fact, Habitat is having a groundbreaking ceremony at 3 p.m., on Wednesday, March 10.

Everyone is invited.

The ceremony will feature My Tien Truong and her family, who will help build the house and then move in when it is completed in about six months. They will pay off their zero interest loan to Habitat over 30 years.

Here’s a story I wrote about the project in September 2007.

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