First Lake Worth family gets house through redevelopment grant program
October 26, 2011 by Jack Collie · Leave a Comment
Phillips, an Army veteran, plans to move from a rented house in West Palm Beach into his South E Street home Saturday with his wife, Yolanda, and two children, Michael Jr. and Danielle.
The family will pay $75,000 for the refurbished three-bedroom, two-bath house with a small yard and a white fence out front. As is customary with Habitat for Humanity homes, Phillips will pay for the house with an interest-free, 30-year mortgage.
The Phillips family and their friends spent 500 hours working on the house and other Habitat for Humanity houses in Palm Beach County – 200 hours more than the sweat equity required.
“I can’t say there’s a day I regretted putting in the hours swinging the hammer and sloshing the paint,” Phillips said.
It was the 118th house in Palm Beach County completed and sold by Habitat for Humanity, one of 20 partners in a consortium led by the Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency that obtained the Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant last year from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Money from the grant is being used by buy and refurbish or rebuild up to 130 foreclosed homes in a T-shaped target area that stretches from Seventh Avenue North to Seventh Avenue South, west to C Street and east to O Street.
Seven dwellings have been renovated so far through the grant program. Thirty more are under construction.
“Now we’re rolling, we’re rolling like a train,” said Bernie Godek, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Palm Beach County.
Cary Sabol, chairman of the CRA board, said he was excited to see the Phillips family moving into a home made available through the grant program the agency is coordinating.
“We’re glad to see the kind of leadership you have here on the ground,” said Ed Jennings Jr., regional administrator for HUD. “Down here in Lake Worth, you’ve got it right. You’re making it happen.”
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