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December 1999
14
Homes Part of New Life for Neighborhood
BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST
December 14, 1999
Angela Hicks might be giving herself and her two daughters
the best Christmas gift of all: a new house.
“I’m giving them something that I thought, being a single
mother, was going to be a hard thing,” says Hicks, 26. “The best thing for them
is having their own room and yard. We’ve never had a yard.”
Hicks and her girls, 6 and 9, will inhabit the first of three
new two-story houses the Salisbury Community Development Commission has built in
the 300 block of North Shaver Street in the Park Avenue neighborhood.
This section of the city — even this spot where the new
three-bedroom, two-bath houses have been built — has suffered many years with a
bad reputation.
“When they first told me where the house was, I said, ‘Oh,
God,’ because I remember how the neighborhood was,” Hicks says.
But she drove to the construction site, liked the houses and
saw other nearby improvements the city had initiated, such as the restoration of
Tar Branch creek and the reconstruction of Cannon Park.
“I said, ‘I could raise my kids there’,” Hicks recalls.
On Thursday at a special open house ceremony, the Salisbury
Community Development Corp. will present Hicks and her girls the keys to their
new house.
In a way, being able to move in will save Hicks some gas
money.
“They (her girls) make me ride by it every day,” she says.
Each of the three new houses perched on this North Shaver
Street hill has its own driveway and is distinguished by a front porch,
high-pitched roof, side dormers and nice appointments inside.
Each sells for $88,000 and has 1,375 square feet.
Thursday ceremony
Headed by Executive Director Chanaka Yatawara, the Community
Development Corp. will hold an invitation-only ceremony from 3 to 4 p.m.
Thursday at Hicks’ house. From 4 to 5 p.m., the public can attend an open house
tour of all the homes, an effort by the Community Development Corp. to bring
affordable home ownership into what had been a troubled area.
A partnership of the Community Development Corp., the city
and local banks make it possible.
The Community Development Corp. chose the three lots where
houses now stand because they had been vacant eyesores within a neighborhood
that has become predominantly rental properties.
The corporation also aims at complementing efforts under way
by the city to help targeted neighborhoods. These vacant properties on North
Shaver Street overlooked the Tar Branch creek area, which workers also are
restoring, and stood a block away from the totally redesigned Cannon Park. (See
accompanying story.)
The city bought the lots for $6,000 each. Community
Development Corp. board member Karen Alexander, an architect, designed the
houses free of charge. Contractor Max Spear charged $80,000 for building each
house, and the corporation decided on an $88,000 asking price.
Helping the buyer
The city and local banks make the $88,000 houses affordable
to qualified buyers (a maximum $43,800 annual income for a family of four) by
buying down the interest rate and helping with the down payment (up to $7,500)
and closing costs (up to $2,500).
The buyer must come up with $500 of the down payment,
reducing the $88,000 cost of a house to $80,000 that has to be financed.
In Hicks’ case, F&M Bank discounted the 7.75 percent mortgage
interest rate at the time by a half point to 7.50 percent. Through grant funding
from the Robertson Foundation, the Community Development Corp. brought down the
interest rate another full point to 6.5 percent on a 30-year fixed mortgage.
Yatawara said Hicks will have a monthly payment of principal
and interest of $502 a month. Taxes and insurance will take the monthly payment
to about $600 a month, he adds.
Spear built the houses in about three months, satisfying the
Community Development Corp.’s hopes of having at least one house built by
Christmas. The houses have a living room, kitchen, master bedroom and full
bathroom downstairs and a full bathroom and two small bedrooms upstairs.
The houses provide all the appliances. The homebuyers, such
as Hicks, are required to attend a homebuyer’s educational seminar as part of
their purchase contract. CCB and Wachovia Bank also are partners in the
community agency’s North Shaver Street project.
The right formula
“It’s exactly what this community needs,” says the Rev.
William Turner, vice president of the Park Avenue Redevelopment Corp., a
non-profit group of citizens working hard for change in the neighborhood.
“Anything for the upbuilding of the community. That’s what
we’re trying to do now.”
Though they haven’t been heavily advertised, the North Shaver
Street houses attract significant attention from passersby, Yatawara says.
Interested buyers should contact him at 797-9192. Spear says the group can work
with buyers who might have credit problems.
F&M and Wachovia banks are sponsoring Thursday’s open house
on North Shaver Street. David McCoy serves as president of the Community
Development Corp. board.
Other directors include Alexander, Mayor Susan Kluttz, City
Manager David Treme, Mae Carroll, Burt Brinson, the Rev. Nilous Avery, Nora
Faucette, Steve Fisher, Shirley Johnson, Carol Meeks, A.L. Mitchell and Janie
Speaks.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263 or
mwineka@salisburypost.com.
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