ATHENS, Ohio — Habitat for Humanity of Southeast Ohio and Ohio University have launched the on-site construction phase of the Bobcat Build, a partnership to build an affordable home in Southeast Ohio, The Athens Messenger reported.
The partners will construct a 1,092-square-foot, three-bedroom home, built as a modular home in two sections on Ohio University’s Athens campus, according to The Athens Messenger. Volunteers will build three days a week until around Thanksgiving, with professionals handling specialized work such as heating and cooling and electrical work over winter break, The Athens Messenger reported.
Construction resumes during the spring 2027 semester, and the finished building will then be transported to its permanent home in Ross County, where it will be completed, Courtney Lefebvre, interim executive director of Ohio University’s Center for Community Impact, explained, according to The Athens Messenger.
“Housing is an issue that impacts everyone in this community and it’s an issue that we impact pretty directly,” Lefebvre told The Athens Messenger. “This project is a real opportunity for us to help address it.” Among those at the ‘first nail’ ceremony were Lefebvre, Ohio University President Lori Stewart-Gonzalez and Chillicothe Mayor Luke Feeney, The Athens Messenger reported, and Habitat then held an open volunteer shift for students, faculty and community members.
“Our organization at Habitat for Humanity of Southeast Ohio is always focused on pushing the envelope of innovation,” Ken Oehlers, the organization’s executive director, told The Athens Messenger, “because it takes a community to build a community.” Feeney, an Ohio University alumnus, put it plainly to The Athens Messenger: “This is regional collaboration. This is literally building regional collaboration.”
Many of the builders are members of Ohio University’s Habitat for Humanity student chapter. “We’re all Bobcats, and we are coming together to build a home for people in need of safe, affordable shelter,” chapter president Aoife McLaughlin told The Athens Messenger. The Athens County Foundation and Project Co-Create also helped establish the partnership, according to The Athens Messenger.
What happens next: volunteer builds continue three days a week on the Athens campus until around Thanksgiving, with the home’s move to Ross County and completion to follow in the spring 2027 semester — one Southeast Ohio family, and one house built section by section by its neighbors, at the end of it.