Habitat for Humanity has made a conditional offer on a Pinecrest Rd. property.

Outgoing Executive Director Joyce Stewart said that the deal doesn’t close until August and declined to give a specific address.

“Only because, if you get into that kind of stuff, people start to speculate and not everybody has a positive, warm and fuzzy (view) of Habitat,” she said.    “They just make assumptions that our families don’t pay mortgages and they don’t work.    In actual fact, the families are screened very carefully and they all work and they all pay mortgages.”

Other concerns that the group typically hear from communities where the plan to build, Ms. Stewart said, range from whether the design will blend to worries that a Habitat home will detract from surrounding property values.

Once purchases are finalized, she added, Habitat contacts the local city councillor and community associations in order to inform all concerned.    “We put in the conditional offer (on the Pinecrest property).    We’re not expecting to have any difficulties, but there are some (by-law) variances required so the submission has gone through to the (city) committee of adjustment.    And we’ll have to wait it out as per that process.”

In keeping with city policy encouraging intensive development inside the Greenbelt, Ms. Stewart said Habitat looks for “irregular” properties which can accommodate multi-unit homes.

Habitat has given “an expression of interest” in another west end property declared surplus by the city, though that purchase is only in the earliest stages.

“We go in with every other person that decides they want to buy a lot,” Ms. Stewart said.    “We have a value that we won’t exceed because, it just costs too much to keep the house affordable.”

As reported previously in The News, a local community association has hopes of a Habitat home being constructed at 810 Norton Ave., just west if Pinecrest.    The home currently on the site, purchased by the former regional government, has been left in disrepair, though the city does plan to demolish it.

Ms. Stewart said the group has the property in mind but that it is not the one they have expressed interest in.

“The community association, we’ve had some e-mails from them and they’re very supportive, but that’s not the property we’re looking at right off the bat.”

Meanwhile, Habitat is preparing to open its nearly-completed duplex in Hintonburg.

The July 10 ceremony will include the handing over of keys to the owners of 88 A and B Stirling Ave. and a tour for volunteers, Ms. Stewart said.

The two families won’t actually move in until August, in order to be sure that all the loose ends are tied up.

This will be the end of another long process, Ms. Stewart said, noting that a Habitat home takes up to two years from start to finish.

Ottawa RCMP officers have raised $90,000 for another forthcoming project, she added, though the search for a location has only just begun.