Two-month-old Kayman Edwards was by far the youngest person at the groundbreaking for Hearth at Benet Woods.

He and his mother, Lisa, were among about 50 people attending the program Tuesday morning that kicked off construction for a long-planned affordable housing project in Ross.

Ms. Edwards and her three children live in Hearth's transitional housing at the former St. Benedict Academy, now known as Benedictine Place. Hearth at Benet Woods will be built nearby along Rodenbaugh Avenue, which is on the Ross-Pittsburgh border.

When construction is completed next summer, its 11 rental units will provide permanent shelter for seniors, working individuals and families.

That is just about the time Ms. Edwards plans to complete her one-year pharmacy technician's course at Bidwell Training Center and will be looking for full-time employment and her own apartment.

One of the new units would be an ideal fit, she said. Her two older children would be able to remain in the North Hills School District, and she could continue to get counseling and advice from Hearth's Benedictine Place support staff.

Hearth, an acronym that stands for Homelessness Ends with Advocacy, Resources, Training and Housing, is a nonprofit agency that provides temporary housing and counseling at Benedictine Place for single women with children.

Benet Woods Housing Corp., a new Hearth subsidiary, has teamed up with a Pittsburgh for-profit developer, Trek Development Group, to construct Hearth at Benet Woods.

The project will include six buildings containing 11 two- and three-bedroom townhouses and a community room. Two of the units will be handicapped accessible.

Constructed with support from state and Allegheny County agencies, the Pittsburgh Foundation and private donations, the units will be rented to individuals and families with incomes ranging from $24,800 to $37,200. Tenants will pay an average monthly rent of $700.

Scott Mance, senior project manager for the general contractor, Guardian Construction Management Services, of East Pittsburgh, said site preparation should begin next week.

Plans call for the exterior shells, including roofs, to be in place by the time bad weather arrives in November. Interior work would continue over the winter with landscaping and final construction finished in the spring, Mr. Mance said.

The completed project will help meet a national and North Hills need to provide affordable housing, according to Jerry Drozynski, president of Benet Woods Housing Corp.

"My dream is to have children laughing and playing on the hillside down behind us," he said.

William Gatti, president of Trek, said his firm was happy to be part of Mr. Drozynski's dream.

Architect Daniel Rothschild said the task for his firm, Pittsburgh-based Rothschild Doyno Collaborative, was "not just to design a building but work with our client to design a community."

The six buildings that are part of Hearth at Benet Woods were designed to fit into the neighborhood in terms of their color scheme, size and lot placement, he said. They also have been designed to encourage residents to become neighbors, he said.

Developing that sense of neighborhood may not be easy. Many longtime residents of Rodenbaugh Avenue and other nearby streets remain upset about the project.

They have complained that the proposed site is too steep and construction will worsen storm water problems. They also say the project will bring too many children into a neighborhood that is mostly senior citizens.

"We still don't want it, and we are not happy about it," said Loretta Jelinek.

"I hope they break their shovels," Joseph Falcona said.

Both live on Rodenbaugh Avenue.

Denise Hamman, of Montville Street, said she was not surprised that neighbors were not told about the groundbreaking. Hearth and Trek have given out misinformation and tried to keep residents in the dark about the project in the past, she said.

Mr. Drozynski pledged to keep neighbors better informed as construction progresses.

Mass meetings, however, are not on the agenda, he said. "Some of our early efforts to inform neighbors were disrupted," he said.

"Neighbors may be invited in small groups up to Hearth offices to talk about where we are and where we are going," he said.