Upcoming Events

Press Event at 255 North Third St

Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday, August 26th, at 5:00 PM, 

on the front porch of 255 North Third Street.

Folks from the Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership and Columbia Borough 

will say a few words and we'll get this project officially kicked-off!

Save the Date - September 6th - Work Rally

Have you been following this project?  Are you interested in helping out?  Please plan to join us

September 6, 2014 

at 255 North Third Street

We'll have more details later, but for now, save the date!  

All skill levels welcome.

Calling All Hands!

The time has come for work to begin on 255 North Third Street!

Impact!Missions is looking for helping hands of all skill levels and also welcomes donations of materials.

We have a lot of good things planned for this house:

• a gorgeous face lift for the exterior
• overhauls of the heating/cooling, electrical, and plumbing systems 
• changes to the second floor's layout 
• a functioning bathroom
• a kitchen remodel
• and tons of smaller projects

Which comes out to a lot of added safety and comfort!

And of course, a great deal of demolition work is needed right up front.  If you like smashing things, this part is for you!

Volunteer labor and materials are what makes this project work, please consider helping in any way you are able.  It doesn't matter whether you are an experienced remodeler, a weekend warrior, or haven't picked up a paint brush before, we can put you to work.

If you are interested, please send an email to our volunteer coordinator Justin Evans at ColaHSC@gmail.com, and we'll be in touch with  more information!

July Updates!

We are happy to announce, along with our partners, the acquisition of 255 North Third Street!  Work will begin on the exterior sometime in the next 3-4 weeks.

 

Please keep your eyes and ears open in the coming weeks for opportunities to volunteer.  This is a big project and the house is going to need all of the help it can get!  

In other news, the neighborhood survey done by Millersville University is complete, and results have been shared with us.  Millersville staff and students talked to half of the households in the 200, 300, & 400 blocks of North Third Street.  This is a fantastic response rate and we have a lot of great information to work with now.

Members of the HSC have been discussing our project with Colonial Metals since the beginning, and it looks like tons of good things will spin out from this partnership, too!

Our next step is to kickstart a neighborhood group.  A big key to our success is getting more residents involved with this project and communicating with each other.  Because ultimately, we want to turn over what we're doing to a group based in North Third and begin again in a new part of Columbia!

Latest News - Resident Survey and More

The Lancaster County Housing Opportunity Partnership (LHOP) stressed to us early on that it was important to find out what the people that live in the area think, what kind of help or services they might find useful, and what they're worried about.

                                     

We were very fortunate to have Dr. Mary Glazier, Director of Millersville University's Center for Public Scholarship and Social Change, give us not just advice, but also professional manpower get the survey out to the residents.

Over the last several weeks, staff and students with the Polling and Research Office of the Center for Public Scholarship have been visiting as many residents as possible on North Third Street.  The response rate has been very good - nearly 40 surveys completed!  The surveyors will be out one or two more times, trying to make contact with people they haven't talked to yet.

Other updates:

• Closing is on schedule for 255 North Third Street.  Work may start as soon as July, and could be done by fall or early winter!

• We are looking at creating a logo for the group and a nice sign for the house as work progresses.

• The working group met with Doug Phillips and has a lot on its plate with design standards and a rehab program.

• The HSC will likely get some publicity from articles in the Lancaster news next weekend, and possibly the Merchandiser.

• We would like to have a part-time coordinator to reach out to and organize volunteers, donations, and materials.  Pastor Elizabeth is looking into ways to make this happen.

AND, as always, if you would like to be involved in any way, please let us know.  And like and share our Facebook page - let's get the word out!

Inside 255

This weekend, we visited 255 North Third and took a few photographs.  We wanted to get some solid "before" shots to compare to the "after," down the road.

There's no way around it; it's a big project and will take a lot of work.  But, there's also so much potential.

This is the main living area.  Like a few row homes on this block, it probably had floor length front windows originally.  At some point, they were exchanged for standard-sized replacement windows.  The fireplace surround was also redone at some point.

And here is an upstairs bedroom.  The exterior door leads to a balcony, the open door leads to the back staircase and two other bedrooms, and the quirky elevated door is a closet.

The sole bathroom in the house is in bad shape.  It hadn't functioned for a while even before the house was vacated.  The kitchen has a wall of cabinetry but otherwise is a blank slate.    

The kitchen and bath are a large chunk of the heavy duty work in the house, but all of the rooms need repairs small and large.  Deep cleaning, new flooring, patching, paint, the works.

255 is just a perfect example of the kind of property we were looking for, and despite the challenges, we're glad to have it, and to get the renovations underway in the next month or two!