A Habitat for Humanity of Marion County groundbreaking was held for the Bender-Anderson family in Knoxville on Friday.

Habitat staff and community came out to the event to break ground of the new home while Habitat for Humanity of Marion County Director Amy Meyer prayed a blessing over the property and gave a speech. This new home build which is at the former site of East Elementary at 614 E Washington St. will be one of two Habitat for Humanity home builds in Knoxville this year. A groundbreaking was held in August for the other home on the property which is expected to be done in May. 

Habitat for Humanity has a mission where everyone has a safe and affordable place to live. The organization carries this mission by building new homes and through their critical home repair program. The new home owners are required to put in 300 or more hours of sweat equity into the project. Meyer tells KNIA/KRLS that the groundbreaking is an exciting part of the process.

“It’s really nice to mark the occasion because a lot of work is going to go into these houses, so to just take a moment and be grateful we have this opportunity to build this house for a really great family and it’s especially great when you already know who the family is going to be and they can be a part of it so think about the ownership they are going to have over that house being involved in every step of the process from when it’s just a piece of land until they actually get the keys to the house.”

Habitat also owns two more lots on the same property to the south which will be sites of future home builds.