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August 2002
28
New Homes will Help Bring the American Dream to Life
BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST
August 28, 2002
In a few weeks, Anibal Cruz will realize his American dream.
He will be the owner of a new three-bedroom, two-bathroom
house with a porch and a big shade tree out front.
Each of his young daughters, Ta'keish Renee and Maria
Elizabeth, will have a bedroom to herself.
(click for larger image)
His monthly house payment will be less than $550 -- thanks to
a low interest rate, his savings and help from state and local financial
institutions.
But Cruz and his family will enjoy something else: They'll be
part of an established neighborhood, Jersey City, that over the next year will
come alive with 11 other new houses and families.
Jersey City is a collection of about 55 residences -- many
with owners who have lived here for decades -- tucked between what has become a
busy medical district along Mocksville Avenue and the railroad tracks to the
south.
(click for larger image)
The Cruzes represent the first family and the first new house
going into Jersey City as part of the Salisbury Community Development Corp.'s
biggest new housing effort yet. Relying as always on private-public
partnerships, the non-profit CDC is building the dozen new homes and training
the first-time homeowners that will go into them.
"It's going to change this neighborhood," says Chanaka
Yatawara, executive director of the Salisbury CDC.
On West Cemetery Street, the Cruzes' two-story house is
almost finished, occupying a narrow lot between two existing homes. Across from
it, the CDChas graded lots that will include three single-story houses,
expected to be finished by this fall.
The city of Salisbury received the three lots in a land
exchange with Dr. Bill Webb, whose new office complex backs up to the rear of
the properties. The city later donated the lots to the CDC.
The CDC demolished old homes not worth rehabilitating to make
way for the new construction on West Cemetery Street. Community Development
Block Grant funds were used to purchase lots elsewhere in Jersey City.
Salisbury City Council last week awarded a contract to
consultants who will help Jersey City residents formulate a redevelopment plan
for their neighborhood, much like the process in the Park Avenue area.
As she did with four new CDC houses in the Park Avenue
neighborhood, architect Karen Alexander has designed the CDC's Jersey City
homes, making efforts to blend their designs in with the existing residences.
The Cruzes' house design is similar to CDC homes on North
Shaver Street, except that the dining area has been extended and will include
French doors.
Sale price of the house is $92,000. The N.C. Housing Finance
Agency provided $18,400 for a down payment, which carries no interest and won't
be due until the 30-year mortgage is paid.
The home's interior includes a niche just behind the living
room for a computer and printer, provided by the CDC. The family also will
receive free Internet service for a year and training on how to use the computer
and Internet from students at the Catawba School of Business.
Lou G. Adkins, community development coordinator, organizes
all of the training prospects must take to qualify for one of the new homes.
First, the CDC program directs participants on how to pay off their outstanding
debts.
Required courses then include, for example, money management,
home maintenance and landscaping with instructors coming from the community.
Participants stay in the program "as long as it takes,"
Adkins says. She has 48 families enrolled at present. Because of their close and
constant contact, many of the families become neighbors even before they have
homes, she adds.
"Once the family is ready (completed their training), then we
start the home," Adkins says.
The training has paid huge dividends. Where first-time
homeowners have been placed in CDC houses, no one has been delinquent in their
monthly house payments, Yatawara says.
Anibal Cruz works as a foreman for a company that replaces
sprinkler heads. A U.S. citizen, he has lived in the country for 12 years.
Adkins believes he will become a real asset.
"He really wants to give back to the community," she says.
"He's just a super guy and a good father to those two girls."
U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., will visit the Cruzes' new home
at 3:30 p.m. today to give details of a housing initiative called WOW -- With
Ownership, Wealth. The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation established the
program in 2001 to increase home ownership for minority populations and
low-income families.
Participants at the Watt event will include local banks,
Fannie Mae, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the
Salisbury and Cabarrus CDCs.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or
mwineka@salisburypost.com.
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