Knightdale — Joyce Crider of Knightdale said helping build a Habitat for Humanity house is what she’s wanted to do for many years.

Now she and her husband Nelson get their chance.

Habitat for Humanity of Wake County is building homes in Knightdale for the first time, said Woody Yates, executive director and chief operating officer of the organization.

Wanting to keep Knightdale housing affordable in a day when growth is fueling pricey new subdivisions, community leaders and elected officials gathered last Wednesday at Knightdale Baptist Church to welcome the Habitat project to town.

The Knightdale United Methodist Church and Northside Community Church, along with Knightdale Baptist are partnering to build six homes in the Mingo Creek subdivision, something the homeowner’s association there has embraced, Yates said.

The homes will all be located on Delham Road, in the subdivision developed by the Fred Smith Company. It has a pool, an athletic center and golfing available at the developer’s Riverwood subdivision in Clayton.

Habitat home owners will be dues-paying members of the Mingo Creek Homeowners Association and have access to the amenities.

The houses will have three bedrooms and two full baths. They will range in size from 1,065 to 1,280 square feet. Two of the homes will be two-story.

The houses will feature a brick veneer foundation and top of the line vinyl siding. All the homes will be eco-friendly with an energy saving heating and air condition system, a feature in Habitat homes since 2005.

The land for the project was donated by John and Frank Benson of Wilson.

Most of the work on the houses will be done by the prospective owners and volunteers, Yates said. He added that some of the work like wiring and plumbing or other tasks that volunteers don’t have the skills to do is contracted out. Homeowners must put in 250 hours of sweat equity and pay an interest free mortgage of the construction cost of the home, Yates said.

Yates said since the organization opened a chapter in Wake County in 1985, most of its work has been done in Raleigh.

But that is changing.

“The rate Knightdale and all 12 municipalities are growing it’s something what we need to address,” he said.

Wake County Commission chair Joe Bryan also addressed the need in Wake County.

He said the county needs 25,000 affordable homes. Since 1992 he said county programs have been responsible for the the building of 1,298 affordable homes.

Bryan also said with the county’s growth rate at 98 people a day, scarcity of affordable housing will be a problem in the future as well.

At the breakfast, leaders emphasized a needed partnership with the faith community, businesses and government.

“When I moved here 25 years ago, Highway 64 was one lane. There was one stoplight and at night all you heard were crickets and frogs. ...,” said N.C. State Representative Linda Coleman, adding that partnerships made growth possible.

“I truly believe you cannot do anything in isolation,” she said. “Having this partnership is really going to meet a lot of needs in Knightdale.”

John Glover, a member of Habitat for Humanity of Wake County’s board of directors, emphasized the rewards to those who are helping build the homes.

“Life’s big rewards come from helping those less fortunate than ourselves,”.he said.

Thomas Bounds, the minister to Knightdale Baptist, said his church members, like the Criders, were ready.

“Our church is very excited about this, to help somebody in a tangible way,” he said. “Many people are used to sending their dollars somewhere else, but you don’t get to see the fruits of it.”