PEABODY — It was one of the best nights of Gary Cowles' life.
Last Tuesday, he had the job of calling up seven local families and letting them know they had a new home in Peabody.
"They were all ecstatic," said Cowles, vice president of Habitat for Humanity-North Shore's board of directors. He led a selection committee that found families who will move into new condominiums Habitat is building on Park Street.
The news made one woman start to cry. "I said to please stop or I was going to start," Cowles said.
Habitat for Humanity is in the process of transforming three run-down properties into eight affordable homes. The complete renovation of a two-unit building at 5 Park St. is the furthest along and should be ready for families by late February or early March. The renovation of a two-unit structure at 12 Park St. and construction of two new duplexes behind it that will house two families apiece should be done in 18 months, according to Donald Preston, Habitat's president.
Tomorrow, the families Cowles called will visit Park Street to learn which of these homes will be theirs.
"We decided, rather than arbitrarily assigning them a unit, to have a blind lottery," Cowles said.
Six names will be drawn from a hat — only six because one family, who will live in 5 Park St., was selected months ago and another, a Beverly family that includes a 9-year-old with cerebral palsy, will occupy the one condo equipped to accommodate the needs of the child.
"They're not all cookie cutter," Cowles said of the condos.
But all eight will have three bedrooms with at least 1,200 square feet of living space. The selected families each have to commit to 400 hours of work on the Park Street project, either on their home or another one of the condos.
"That is their down payment," Preston said. Habitat then provides them a $125,000 no-interest mortgage.
Forty families applied for this opportunity, and the candidate pool was thinned according to income criteria that primarily followed federal guidelines. For a family a four, for example, the annual income range was a minimum of $36,720 and a maximum of $55,080. Families also had to have a good credit score, Cowles said.
Four of the families either live in Peabody or include someone who works there. City officials wanted a strong representation because the city has chipped in $700,000 of the estimated $1.5 million cost. Peabody used $500,000 from its inclusionary zoning fund and another $200,000 in Community Preservation Act money.
The project, Habitat's most ambitious local undertaking thus far, is an entirely volunteer effort. Demolition began in the fall of 2009, and help throughout has come from all walks of life, professionals from the financial sector and the trades along with high school and college students.
There is a lot more to do.
"We're always open all the time to new volunteers," Preston said. "You do not have to worry about (construction) experience. You have to come prepared to work."
The three homes Habitat chose, one of which was demolished, were dilapidated casualties of the foreclosure crisis. When the work is done, a pocket of blight in a downtown neighborhood will be a memory. And eight families will have a new future.
"I can't imagine being one of these families and getting this so near Christmas," Preston said. "I know the impact we've had on other families we've served. It's life changing."
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