Affordable housing for 15 families

When her building burned down four years ago, Cherie Toney was left with next to nothing — except the goal to find another home in her Brooklyn neighborhood. “I just believed,” she said. Now the dream is about to come true.

A blue ribbon was cut in the backyard of the newly-built Dean Street Condominiums on Saturday, heralding the end of a years-long project by Habitat for Humanity that will provide affordable home ownership for 15 families.

The series of buildings on Dean St. and Mother Gaston Blvd. in Brownsville will be ready for occupancy by the end of the month.

“I’m packed and ready,” said a beaming Toney, 52, who will be moving in with her son, 21.

Toney’s path to the Dean Street Condominiums has been a bumpy one. Raised in the nearby Sumner Houses, she lived in the Bronx before moving back to her home borough in the 1990s. Almost 20 years later, a fire tore through her building on Washington Ave., requiring over 100 firefighters and destroying most of her possessions.

Since the fire, Toney has lived in a smaller, more expensive apartment in East Flatbush, unable to afford her old neighborhood due to gentrification and rising rents. A friend suggested she apply for the Dean Street Condominiums a few years ago.

“I applied and I qualified. I went through the process, I did sweat-equity hours,” she said.

Two-bedroom units boast wood floors, large closets, and breakfast bars. The homes, which went for $200,000$280,000, came with 30-year fixed mortgages. All buyers were at least at 80% below area median income.

The homes have been a long time coming. “We’ve been holding the property and putting the project together for the better part of 10 years.” Said Karen Haycox, CEO of Habitat for Humanity. “From groundbreaking until now has been about three years.”