The Knoxville City Council approved the use of the city’s Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) funds to assist Habitat for Humanity of Marion County in acquiring a lot to build a single-family home at their meeting Monday night. 

To qualify for Habitat Home ownership, the purchaser must be within the 60% to 80% medium HHI (Herfindahl-Hirschman Index) range for Marion County, which ranges from $45,700 to $60,933 in annual household income for a family of four this year. In Knoxville, the current median HHI is approximately $52,000. Knoxville City Manager Heather Ussery says there are limited uses for the LMI fund, and that the council believed this was a good cause to use them for. 

“There are requirements on what those funds can be used for, and they have to support low to moderate income projects. And so, Council did support that decision and we will be moving forward with assisting Habitat to purchase that and overall that helps decrease the cost for the future owner of that property and what the mortgage would be with the city at helping assist with that. They would be able to get the home and the subsidy that the city is allowing can help the overall mortgage cost.”

Habitat for Humanity intends to build a single-family home with an attached garage on the lot at 713 N Roche St in Knoxville.