A city order halted a Habitat for Humanity and UI Homecoming Council project that would give a home to a family in need.

Kevin Paulsen, the outreach director for the Homecoming Council, said the goal of the project was “to involve the university and to show that students do care and want to give back.”

And luckily, that goal is still reachable.

Alpha Diallo, along with his wife and three kids, will still have a home come May 2010 thanks to the Tippie Build 2010, which has adopted the Diallo family as the benefactor of its housing project.

The Tippie Build is in its third year of partnership with Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity, and the house was being planned when the Homecoming project fell through.

Amanda Wolcott, a co-treasurer for the Tippie Build Steering Committee, said the project is sponsored by a number of different student business groups that conduct fundraisers in order to reach the $50,000 needed to build the new home.

The family from Guinea will have to wait until May for their new home to be ready, a drastic change from the November date that was scheduled under the original project. The groundbreaking for the new location, 2449 Whispering Prairie Ave., took place Sept. 25, but for now, the family is forced to live in temporary housing.

A cease and desist order, issued Sept. 24, barred construction on the original project after officials discovered the lot had been improperly subdivided.

Mark Patton, the executive director of Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity, said the former owner of the property did not follow the correct procedures when he split the lot in 1992.

Patton also said Iowa City changed its property tracking system in 1994, causing the irregularity to go unnoticed. Habitat for Humanity bought the land in 2007, Patton said, and the city granted it permission to build on the site.

Habitat for Humanity had laid a foundation on the site, and above-ground construction was set to begin on Sept. 25.

“The city’s not mad at us,” Patton said. “[Officials] actually feel sorry for us because we put in all this time and effort.”

Patton did not expect construction on the lot to take place in the near future and said Habitat for Humanity would seek compensation for funds already invested in the project. He said the organization’s goal is to provide housing for families in need, and if the group is unable to do that on this lot, it would focus efforts on more promising projects.

“We wouldn’t be buying it just to have a piece of grass to mow,” Patton said.