Construction of Roanoke’s 11th R-House to begin on campus this month
August 17, 2016
This month Roanoke College's newest students will begin building a local family's future.
Construction of the College's 11th R-House, the dwelling that students build annually on campus during orientation with local nonprofit Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley, begins on Aug. 28. The building of this future two-story house, slated for a needy family, will take place in the College's Hawthorn Road parking lot, adjacent to the outdoor track.
Through Aug. 30, groups of Roanoke students, Habitat staff and volunteers will build sections of the house on campus before transporting it to Loudon Avenue in Northwest Roanoke, its permanent address. This part of Roanoke, which the city has named the Melrose-Orange Target Area, is a focus neighborhood for Roanoke Valley Habitat.
Habitat crews will move four large pieces of the house from Roanoke College to Loudon Avenue on Sept. 1.
Dasarath and Lalita Kadariya and their children, Chandra, 20 and Nirajan, 14, will move into the three-bedroom house once it's complete. The Kadariya family, originally from Bhutan in South Asia, lived in a refugee camp in Nepal for 18 years before coming to the United States in 2012. Settling in Roanoke has allowed them the opportunity to become independent in a new country.
The family is seeking a Habitat house, because they have outgrown their current residence. Habitat homeowners help to build their house and those of other Habitat homeowners. They also attend homeowner education classes and receive Habitat's maintenance instruction and support to ensure successful homeownership after move-in.
Roanoke students typically return to the R-House site throughout the fall semester to help in the building project. Most Habitat homes are complete in four to six months.