April 29, 2012
Seven Columbia banks that normally compete for customers are working together to increase the number of affordable home in some of the city’s most distressed neighborhoods.
The banks have built nearly 30 homes and renovated several more in the city’s First Ward since 1994 by purchasing and restoring vacant or dilapidated homes. The city of Columbia is part of the Columbia Community Development Corp. effort.
High school students studying construction technology at the Columbia Area Career Center help build the homes.
Single parent ElTonya Rhoades said the program gives her 6-year-old son Elijah a safe place to play and helped her obtain a mortgage despite previous financial trouble. She was familiar with the Community Development Corp.’s housing because her mother bought a home from the group in 2001.
“Elijah is fearless,” she said. “I wanted a big fence. This way he can stay outside and be safe.”
The housing corporation requires the new homes to be owner-occupied to help stabilize the neighborhood, said Guy Long, a real estate agent who works as the program’s listing agent.
“We believe in pride of ownership,” Long said. “Homeowners take care of their own property. These homes have been clean, neat, manicured and cared for.”
Community development corporations sprouted nationwide nearly two decades ago after the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency allowed banks to create corporate entities focused on rehabilitating traditionally underserved areas through investment in residential real estate, commercial redevelopment or neighborhood facilities.
Steve Erdel, president of Boone County National Bank, said the Columbia program is the exception among comparable efforts led by individual lenders.
“Normally a community development corporation is one particular bank that owns the corporation on the side,” Erdel said. “In this instance we have local banks in the same market sharing expenses and risk on investments.”
Rhoades lived in public housing for five years and then in Section 8 housing for an additional nine months before she bought her own place.
“I really wanted a place to provide for my son that we could call home, where no one could tell me how to live,” she said. “No one can tell me whether I can barbecue on the front porch, or have a dog or not. They’re my rules.”
She took out a loan with Boone County National Bank and qualified to receive nearly $30,000 worth of federal housing grants from the city under a homeowners’ assistance program. Rhoades said she couldn’t have bought the $115,000 home without the city grants.
“My down payment was only $500,” Rhoades said. “Even if you saved, no one can come up with $10,000 out of pocket.”
The construction crew at one current project consists of students from Hickman, Rock Bridge and Hallsville high schools. The young workers install siding and trim, apply Drywall and hang windows, doors and cabinets, among other activities.
“The houses build a little bit slower, but we’re learning when we fail,” supervisor Bill Mitchell said. “It’s pretty stringent. We correct our mistakes and build it back up and do it right.
Source: Kansas City
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