WELCOME HOME
Unique partnership sets stage for affordable housing
POTTSTOWN >> For years Debra Parkins lived in a home on an alley between Fourth and Fifth street so old it leans.
“It was tiny, and you really noticed it when you went up the stairs,” said Parkins, who now has a set of perfectly level stairs to climb.
A renter all her life, most of it in Pottstown, Parkins “always wanted to own a home, especially when I had kids, but it’s not easy as a single mom,” she said.
But after she got custody of her three granddaughters — 20-year-old Giavanna Rice and twin 15-year-old girls, Alona and Mylia Olson — the need became more urgent for her.
Enter Habitat for Humanity; and MOSAIC Community Land Trust; and Genesis Housing; and a list of other partners too numerous to name here.
In fact, the three-bedroom home was made possible through a first-of
its-kind collaboration between the three groups which joined forces over three years ago to purchase and demolish a blighted home and make way for a new two-story single-family home.
Located adjacent to Mosaic’s community garden on Chestnut Street the new Parkins home sits on land owned by the Community Land Trust.
This method separates the ownership of land and housing. Parkins owns the building and the land trust owns the land. This approach prevents market factors from causing prices to rise significantly and hence guarantees that housing will remain affordable for future generations.
That means even when it’s sold, the house “will be permanently affordable,” said Tracy Purdy, president of the land trust’s board of directors.
Judy Memberg, executive director of Genesis Housing, said for years, activists had been trying to get their hands on the lot.
“The garden looks great, but the house next door looked terrible,” she said. “When we finally got control of it, it was in such bad shape we had to demolish it and build a new one.”
This does not mean the “sweat equity,” aspect of Habitat for Humanity’s methodology was ignored and Parkins and her granddaughters “hammered nails, sawed wood, caulked windows and did the other things someone building a house from scratch would do — just not all of it.
“A Habitat home is a building block for a better future for individuals and families who partner with us,” said Rebecca Cain, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery and Delaware Counties. “On dedication day, we get to celebrate the hard work our partner families have put into the program while thanking the volunteers and donors who give generously in support of our mission.”
When Parkins was contacted and told she qualified to be the home’s new owner, “tears flowed and excited yelling began,” said Kim Cassada, director of family services for Habitat.
Standing on the new porch to commemorate the new beginning, U.S. Rep. Madeleine Den, D-4th Dist., said after visiting flood victims over the past several days, “I am mindful of the notion of home, after being with people who lost everything.”
On that same porch, Parkins gained not only the keys to a new home and a new set of tools from longtime volunteer Paul Rihn; a box of fresh produce from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and a basket of cleaning materials.
“That’s for you girls,” Parkins joked to her granddaughters.
“It still seems surreal,” she said. “I don’t think it’s going to feel real until we’re living in the house.”
In the meantime, she told the crowd of supporters, “there are a lot of things I can say, but the main thing is thank you.”