A family moved into a new home on Philo Curtis Road last weekend. It isn’t a big house – just five rooms. But that’s okay. It isn’t a big family – just a mother and her eight-year-old son. While it isn’t one of the town’s new crop of mega-mansions, Susan and Chris Mallabar’s new home should make all of Newtown proud. The house was constructed by Habitat for Humanity at minimal cost with about 3,000 hours of labor donated by volunteers. Ms Mallabar worked nearly 400 hours herself on the house next door – another Habitat project that was completed last year.

By using volunteer labor and donated building material, Habitat for Humanity is able to keep the cost of the house to a minimum. Combining that savings with low-cost home loans, the organization enables families who otherwise could never dream of homeownership to purchase safe and secure housing for their families.

This is not only a noble thing for an organization and community to do. It is also smart community planning. The most vital communities are not always the most homogeneous communities. Newtown’s own Plan of Development recognizes this, concluding that the “economic well-being of the community is partially dependent on the diverse range of housing opportunities.” Implicit in this statement is that people with modest incomes who live in modest homes often work in vital service industry jobs locally. Without them, local businesses cannot thrive.

But keeping businesses afloat isn’t the only reason why families of modest means are important to Newtown. From our own unscientific reading of civic mindedness around town, we see no correlation between the size of houses and incomes to volunteer community service; if there is one, it may even be an inverse correlation. All of us know people who make invaluable contributions to our schools, churches, civic clubs and organizations, and to our fire and ambulance services who also must scramble from rental to rental in search of the increasingly rare affordable place to live. These people are not just a demographic group. They are our friends.

Newtown should not be satisfied to simply pat itself on the back for the completion of two Habitat for Humanity homes on Philo Curtis Road. The need for low-cost affordable housing in town grows more acute in each passing year. Habitat projects should be part of the continuing development of our town. Consequently, we feel compelled to question why Newtown is apparently passing by an opportunity for another Habitat project on Queen Street.

In January 1999, Newtown residents voted 155 to 8 to purchase six houses and eight lots on 15 acres on Queen Street for $1.25 million from the state. The idea forwarded by proponents of the purchase at the time was that the town could sell the properties after placing deed restrictions on them precluding condominiums or other intense development proposals. It was even suggested that the smallest of the properties at 31 Queen Street could be turned over to Habitat for Humanity for renovation and sale to an eligible family.

Last December, however, the Legislative Council decided to put off any action on the Queen Street properties until after the ultimate disposition of the state’s possible sale of Fairfield Hills to the town is known. Earlier this year, the council took up the issue again to explore the possibility of tearing down all the houses on the 15-acre property and keeping the land as open space. Again, no formal action was taken on the plan.

All of the likely alternatives for the eventual use of Fairfield Hills include a large tract of open space for the town. Why does the town feel the need to tear down a modest house on a tiny property on Queen Street for the sake of acquiring even more open space, when the property would be perfect for another acutely needed Habitat for Humanity project? The disposition of the Queen Street properties was long ago moved to the back burner and then into the deep freeze by the Legislative Council. It is time for the council to thaw out the issue enough to give Habitat the go-ahead for another project on Queen Street. It will be good for Newtown. And as anybody who has met Susan and Chris Mallabar will tell you, it is the right thing to do.