Howard County’s religious community is banding together to help Habitat for Humanity build a fourth house for a low-income county family.

“As a biblical model, maybe what we need to do is turn our chairs outside” of the church, said Steve Girard, a member of Grace Community Church and Building Bridges, a group of churches and nonprofits teaming up to help build an affordable home.

About a dozen congregations will roll up their sleeves next spring to build a four-bedroom, two-story house on Cherry Avenue in Elkridge.

“This Route 1 corridor is an area of great need,” David Roura, executive director for Habitat for Humanity of Howard County, said, adding the project fits well in the area’s revitalization.

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Religious and community leaders gathered Thursday morning at the empty lot near Route 1 where four affordable houses are slated for construction. The other three homes will be built by Columbia Housing Corporation, a nonprofit that serves low- and moderate-income families.

The Habitat house will be the first built through the organization’s Apostle’s Build program, which brings churches together to build the houses. Now local churches can focus their time and money on a need often overlooked in a wealthy county like Howard, said Stuart Welsh, a member of Habitat’s board and Apostle’s Build coordinator.

“They’re just turning what they’ve already done in other places” to their own community, he said.

Habitat for Humanity homes are sold to low-income residents through interest-free loans.

Funding for this house comes from a federal home investment program, under which the county gets about $575,000 a year, said Howard’s Housing Director Stacy Spann.

The county purchased the land for $68,000, he said.

For the Habitat home, the family chosen to buy the house will help build it, putting in what Spann called “sweat equity.”

“They are literally earning their way to a house,” Spann said.

“It’s progress.”

At a glance

Since 2005, Habitat for Humanity of Howard County has built or is building three homes:

» The first family moved into a home in Columbia in April 2005.

» Two houses are being built on a third of an acre on Wye Avenue in Jessup.

smichael@baltimoreexaminer.com