HOME is a Catalyst for Change - HUD - YouTube

I would love to share some stories about this. There was still a community here in the Galesville

community. That was living...we actually had units without

indoor plumbing or running water. I know that's amazing to

think of but there was actually 16 rental units.

We had to bring all the water we need, heat all the water for bathing and that's how we

got through that kind of living. Outdoor, you know, houses.

Well you know what Trolley Square was don't you? It was actually the place where all the

trolleys came back to roost. So, not the most attractive site you know and it's in the middle

of a very busy commercial area.

I came from a broken house, I divorced my husband and I don't have any place to live

and then I have two children.

I have two daugthers, one is 25 and one is 23. my 25 year old daugther just moved out

so my younger daughter 23 who has a disability is the one that is with

me now. And I leave my house due to domestic violence. At that

time there was really no priority as to what kind of housing you could get so I was in

townhouse which obviously wasn't the best housing for someone who is a wheelchair user.

With the King Lincoln District and 21st Street in particular both had significant pockets

of disinvestment and blight. A lot it being properties, properties

that were in disrepair, home owners who felt like no one cared.

So it was an area that needed a shot in the arm.

There were a lot of boarded up homes, a lot of empty lots. If you go a couple streets

over, you have felt really unsafe.

Approximately, 10 or so years ago we began a strategy on how to revitalize what was once

a very vibrant downtown.

There were four of us in a two bedroom and it just got too much so we moved to a four

bedroom house in South Ontario and I got laid off.

We had the very unique situation of a Navajo nation and they have some dismal statistics.

So its been very difficult to be able to produce something of great value there. Up to 20 years

ago, literally half the housing units didn't even have sewer systems going

to it. 15 percent of them didn't have any kind of running water

going to them. In fact, a third of the houses currently don't even have bedrooms.

While we used to live on somebody else's farm and we had no running water, no electricity

for like seven years.

I can tell that everybody that has come here to live has gone through a crisis n their

life because homelessness is a crisis.

I have a long history of being homeless and being in and out of shelters. In and out of

a lot of winter time programs that close off at the Spring so you're

on the streets again.

Shelter living, I feel personally is not for any one human being whether it be a male,

female, children and it's actually, you know quite devasating.

The area around this neighborhood was completely encircled by privately owned rental housing

that was pretty dilapilated. It was home to a lot of drug

dealers to a lot of transiet people, a lot of vacancies, a lot of

activity that made life much harder for people in Morningside homes.

It was not, not good at all. I know there was a lot of drugs and violence.

I live with my daugther, things happened like life and she left her job. I lost my job,

she went to school, eventually I wound up here.

We worked with the community to help them bring in, help pay for the water and sewer

and then brought together five or six different sources of funding,

HOME being one of those very important sources at that time.

HOME projects like Trolley are so important because they create opportunity for the average

working person to have a place to live in a very high quality

neighborhood.

Begining in the Fall of 2004 we began to work on indvidual projects, site by site along

the 21st coridor between Long Street and Mount Vernon with HOME funds.

In total, this project resulted in over $91 million being invested into downtown.

We have right now almost 100 families living and working in an area that there was no opportunity

before.

We have a really strong partnership with the city that invests local dollars and HOME dollars.

with the housing came low income housing tax credits plus with money at the State level.

And what we've done in the HOME program has helped us. We've been able to get individual

units throughout the county so that folks who have these special needs can address the

needs, can get the help they need, that they are living in the larger community.

My life has changed, I am so happy and so content.

When you turn the water on, we got hot water. We turn the water on, we've got water period.

And you know, everyone did the condominums and the grudges. I mean that's what's beautiful

about the place. it's just a nice place to come home to, you know.

This area is for me, I don't know how many years I have to live here but i am the happiest

person and even my children.

Living here has been amazing, I'm proud to be a home owner. I'm so proud to have found

this community where I can actually feel a part of it and

it a part of me.

In a home is security. I can live and know that my neighbors who also own their home

will take pride and look after my home when I'm away and the relationship

is vice versa.

In a good place to raise my grand-daugther and my youngest son. It's good, I like it.

And for myself also.

We have our family gathering, we could...we laugh, we watch movies. Sometimes my grand-daughter

will come and spend the night with me and I say to her,

now this is your bedroom.

It's a lot healthier. My mental health is so much better than it was back then. It's

just, I have a place that I can call my own.

This is where I wanted to be, this is what I wanted to do and once I got here, this is

it. I'm not going anywhere. I love it here.

With that being said, HOME is truly a catalyst for change.

HOME is a catalyst for change.

HOME

HOME

HOME is a catalyst

for change

For change

HOME

is a catalyst

for change

for all of us