SALISBURY, Md.- It's been about six months since the launch of the "Here Is Home" initiative in Salisbury.
Yesterday, Mayor Jake Day held a press conference saying that 8,100 new homes will be built in the next five years. It's a rise in inventory that Wicomico County hasn't seen in over two decades.
The 8,100 hundred homes consist of about 5,000 apartment units, 1,400 single family detached homes, 600 townhomes, 400+ townhomes or apartments depending on demand, 376 duplexes, and 161 assisted living units.
Fees will be waived on connection fees, site fees, building permits, and water and sewer fees.
Mayor Jake Day says "Here is Home" will make an impact on the entire region.
"Here is Home has the potential to add three times the number of housing units on the Eastern Shore since the year 2010 to today and a potential to increase the population more than four times of the entire Eastern Shore from 2010 to today," Day said.
Wicomico County Habitat for Humanity is building a home on Barclay Street as part of the initiative. Director Molly Hilligoss says "Here is Home" will help bring costs down and in turn help those in need.
"The savings on the permitting fees, that's huge savings for us," Hilligoss said. "The opportunity that so many families need for affordable housing is not just about single family home ownership, it's about providing an inventory of housing that lasts here in the city."
Hope and Life Outreach (HALO) is helping homeless people to apply for the program. Executive Director Celeste Savage says the housing crisis in Salisbury is twofold.
"A combination of affordability and availability is really what we're seeing in this community," Savage said. "That's the greatest amount."
The waived fees which are a major part of this incentive will stay in place for all projects as long as construction starts by October 2023.