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November 2002
11
New Houses Get a Parade
BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST
November 11, 2002
The Salisbury Community Development Corp. will celebrate the
construction of four new houses in the Jersey City neighborhood with a Tuesday
afternoon block party and "Parade of Homes."
The public is being invited to the block party between 3:30
and 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 700 block of West Cemetery Street.
The new homes, which will be occupied by first-time
homeowners, are located at 702, 708, 711 and 712 W. Cemetery St. They bring to
eight the number of new homes the non-profit Salisbury CDC has built for
qualified buyers, several of whom also completed an extensive education program
in home ownership and personal financial management.
The Salisbury CDC's first four homes were built in the Park
Avenue neighborhood.
The CDC plans to build 12 new homes in the Jersey City
neighborhood, including the four on West Cemetery Street that will be open to
the public Tuesday afternoon.
The block party will include music, hot dog vendors and snow
cones. F&M Bank is sponsoring all the activities.
Construction on the homes is nearing completion. Contractors
have started the landscaping around the homes in recent days.
The families targeted for the new homes expect to close on
the properties later this month.
The homes range in price from $90,000 to $96,000. The N.C.
Housing Finance Agency provides down-payment assistance, and F&M Bank and
Citizens South have supplied portfolio loans at below-market interest rates.
The new homeowners all will have monthly mortgage payments of
less than $600, including taxes and insurance.
To qualify, families must meet income guidelines. Their
annual income must be at least 80 percent below the city's median income. A
family of four's income would have to fall under $51,000, for example.
Chanaka Yatawara, executive director of the Salisbury CDC,
said the program is only possible through all of its partners -- 16 different
entities are involved, he said.
Yatawara gives special thanks to the local lending
institutions and the city of Salisbury, which donated land for the new homes and
has always played a significant role in the program.
"One of the most unique things about the houses are the
Internet access and computers in every house," Yatawara said of a pilot program
the CDC is trying with Catawba College's School of Business.
F&M Bank and Citizens South donated the computers, and
Catawba College assigns students to serve as mentors for the families in helping
them learn how to use the computer and Internet.
Three Catawba football players and a basketball player will
serve as mentors in these four houses.
Lou Adkins, community development coordinator for the CDC,
heads the education program for the families who move into the new CDC homes.
For her efforts in helping low- and moderate-income families find housing, she
recently won the Outstanding Individual Housing Counselor Award for 2002.
The N.C. Association of Housing Counselors sponsors the
award.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or
mwineka@salisburypost.com.
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