Work is underway on the fifth and final Habitat for Humanity home at Whittle Lane in Bremerton, a project boosted by new community partnerships and construction education in the classroom.

Two pairs of homes were completed in 2014 and 2019 at the donated Whittle site prior to the start of work on the now 106th Habitat home in Kitsap County. Development director Shannon Michlitsch said the breaking of ground on the plot is another goal met in Habitat’s mission to put a solid roof over families seeking housing.

“Habitat believes that everyone deserves a safe, decent and affordable home of their own,” she said.

Members of the Bremerton Central Lions Club agree. In celebration of its 100th anniversary, the club is donating $75,000 to the project, and its members will offer assistance in as much of the labor as possible. The invitation to assist in the building of the house will be open to all Lions Clubs in the area.

“We Lions are extremely blessed and fortunate to be able to participate in the building of this home for a deserving family,” club president Robert Perkins said. “Where there’s a need, there’s a Lion.”

Also assisting in the house construction are students at the West Sound Technical Skills Center, who officials say will construct the wall framework before delivering it to the site.

Whittle Lane is just one of the active building sites for Habitat with the last few houses in the 32-home Harris Court project in Port Orchard set to be completed sometime next year. Matthew Weighall, president of Kitsap’s Habitat board of directors, said Habitat has acquired land off Vena Avenue north of Bremerton to build another 12-16 homes. That project is in design while Habitat remains vigilant in the search for yet another building site.

“It’s taken us some time to work through the roadblocks that COVID put in place, but what we have moving forward feels clear. We have a great team, and we’re building up our capacity going into these next projects,” Weighall said.