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Residents of the 1900 block of Northwest Cherry are still looking out the windows and studying a neighbor’s backyard, but now they’re smiling.
The Horror has been turned into a home for a family who don’t yet know they can afford it, thanks to a renovation program coordinated by the City of Lawton’s Housing and Community Development Division.
The division has a long history of offering programs that provide block grants for community development and HOME funding to homeowners for emergency repairs and necessary renovations. Administrator Christine James said the project specifically targeted an empty house on the verge of being declared dilapidated. This designation, which would have pleased surrounding neighbors, means that the deteriorating structure with a gaping hole in its roof and missing doors and windows would have been demolished, with empty land left in its place.
Today, the fully renovated 1,170 square foot home is ready to be occupied, as soon as the Housing and Community Development division is able to take the next step in the process: finding its new owner.
James said the renovation project came about as she and her staff were discussing projects that could be done with funding from the CDBG and HOME programs that remain from allocations from previous years. The division has already allocated some of this funding to projects that help low-income neighborhoods and residents. Work has been done at the three community centers in the town of Lawton, while plans are underway to help fund a downtown veterans center. But James was looking for other ideas.
What caught his attention was something that housing and community development hasn’t done in over a decade: renovating an empty and deteriorating structure in a neighborhood, then offering it for sale to a family or a skilled low-income individual who would otherwise have no hope of owning a home.
The Northwest Cherry home “was a bad apple,” she said. She said the surrounding neighborhood was a strong family neighborhood with homes maintained by their owners and that they were not happy with the deterioration of the neighboring structure.
“It was slowly collapsing,” she said of a structure whose roof deteriorated so badly it collapsed, while the missing windows and doors were boarded up to keep people out. enter.
She said what the entrepreneurs found was shocking. Among other things, there were seven layers of shingles on the roof.
“They removed about 3 inches of shingles,” she said, agreeing that the structural integrity of the house had to be good to support the weight of those many shingles.
The bright green and broken shingles have been replaced with new soft grays, blending into a home with new exterior siding, weathertight doors and windows, a wood deck in the back and a wood porch in the back. ‘before. The two-car carport has also been redone, leaving a tidy house that complements the houses that surround it. Inside, the walls have been redone, the floor is tiled, and the two bedrooms and a master bedroom (with an added bathroom) are ready to be occupied.
“Neighbors love to come in,” James said, adding that contractors were good at allowing neighbors to check on what they were doing (neighbors were watching anyway, she said, smiling broadly). “All the neighbors are great, super excited. It has been a horror for a long time.
And that’s one of the things James loves the most about the conversion project. Not only will a family have the chance to buy a home, but a neighborhood will look great because a dilapidated structure is gone, leaving no vacant land in its wake.
“It’s in a good neighborhood,” she said. “We’re pretty excited.”
This excitement prompts James and his team to think about the future.
“I would love to do another one,” she said, adding that although the COVID-19 pandemic influenced this project (renovation costs were higher than expected as the cost of materials skyrocketed ), costs drop, making another project affordable.
That means figuring out what would be done with future home improvement projects: selling them or turning them into rental homes run by the Lawton Housing Authority or the Great Plains Improvement Foundation. The deciding factor for this decision will be how difficult it is to sell that home.
The sale process will follow guidelines set by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. This means the structure cannot be sold for more than 95% of its value (determining that price is the next step, James said).
She said her goal was to help a family who might not otherwise be eligible to buy a home.
“This is an opportunity to skyrocket,” she said, explaining that this is why, once the assessment is complete, it will set a price that low-income residents can afford.
“It’s nice and spacious,” she said. “It’s big enough for a few kids. “
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