Homefront, Inc. has purchased 10 homes on 19th Street for a major home and community rebuilding effort.
The homes have been purchased and rebuilt using city and state grant money.
Two of the homes have already been fully rebuilt and currently have people living in them. Another three have been sold and are waiting to be finished. Three others are in various stages of renovation while two others are scheduled for demolition and a ground up rebuild.
“We will have everything done on 19th Street by the end of this year,” said Joe Bologna, project manager for Homefront.
To keep the neighborhood from becoming gentrified, Homefront is selling the homes at a price far below the cost of the renovations. For example, 38 19th St. is listed for $84,000. Joe Bologna estimates each house costs around $180,000 to renovate.
By using another portion of the grant money, Homefront is able to help prospective buyers by offering a purchase subsidy on top of the houses’ reduced cost.
“Our target buyer income is 80 percent of the area median, that’s $36,100 for a single person,” said Jean Berry the program director for Homefront. “To have somebody who makes that kind of money buy one of our homes for more than $60,000 would be us putting them in an unaffordable home.”
Affordable and long lasting housing is Homefront’s way to improve the neighborhood and keep housing prices from pushing others out. By Michael Hargrave and Shayna McKie
