MILLVILLE, NJ - Affordable Homes of Millville Ecumenical Inc. is set to begin its second phase of rehabilitation and creation of new affordable housing in the city's downtown. The 15-year-old nonprofit, known as AHOME, has given "extreme makeovers" to 38 homes in a 40-block radius in Millville. Those homes were then sold below market value, according to Executive Director Donna Turner. But the organization has a new goal, and it hopes to dramatically increase its total in the next year.
AHOME received a grant from a state program to make 23 more homes available. The organization already owns 11 sites for those houses, Turner said. The organization sold five houses in 2007, but wants to provide between six and 10 this year, Turner said. The organization will begin the next phase after it completes its biggest project, a once-rundown house on Main Street that AHOME officials affectionately referred to as "Big Blue."
"It was a total eyesore," Construction Manager Donald Olcese said during a South Jersey Focus meeting last week with Daily Journal editors and reporters. The home, which is now tan, will be sold in the next few months to a city resident who committed to buy it before work was even completed. "She knew of our reputation," Turner said of the new homeowner. The organization's goal is to not only provide affordable housing, but also to improve the city's overall appearance by transforming blighted properties.
AHOME provides home ownership opportunities to people who make 80 percent or less of the area's median income, which is calculated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The cutoff for a family of four is $44,000, and $35,500 for a single person.
The organization usually sells homes at about $100,000 less than the cost of acquiring and transforming them. Raising money is critical, Turner said. Most homes cost about $150,000 to acquire and rehabilitate, and the houses sell between $70,000 and $95,000. The mortgage is between $600 and $700 a month, about one-third of the household's monthly income.
AHOME also receives help from the Cumberland County Technical Education Center in Deerfield. The school's students and staff in the past two years have built nine houses, which they donated to the organization. AHOME spends about $50,000 on supplies and $18,000 to move the homes from the TEC site, Turner said. The organization also has received $40,000 for each of its last six properties from the city's Revenue Allocation District, she said.
The new owners comprise a mix of families and single people among various ethnicities. AHOME has had two "hardship" cases, where family situations meant they had to give up the house they bought, but no one has lost a house through foreclosure, Turner said.
Luisa Ortiz, financial counselor, credits the significant amount of time the organization spends counseling first-time homeowners. AHOME educates their clients, many of whom have been renters their whole lives, on keys to homeownership, including maintaining the building and keeping appliances up to date. Ortiz also gives a budgeting class.
AHOME provided counseling to more than 400 families last year, Turner said. Seventy-seven of them came to the organization facing some sort of foreclosure. AHOME will work as a mediator with banks to give residents some flexibility to help them keep their home. "Building houses is good. Helping someone stay in their house is just as important," Turner said. "It's getting worse. They come to us when they have no one else to come to."
Source: TheDailyJournal.com