Business View Magazine
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neighborhood – the Southside Neighborhood. The
City partnered with Self-Help, a North Carolina-based,
national, Community Development Financial Institu-
tion (CDFI), who purchased lots in this neighborhood.
The City then purchased lots from Self-Help and de-
veloped a plan to build about 48 houses using local
dollars and a portion of federal entitlement dollars.
The use of those federal funds required that at least
fifty-one percent of the houses be sold to persons of
low and moderate income as defined by the U.S. De-
partment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The balance of those units could be sold to anyone
who wanted to buy and reside in a house in that area.
The City selected two builders to build those houses,
market them in partnership with our Department, and
sell them. We’re pleased to report that all 48 lots have
been contracted and 44 households have closed on
their houses and are living in them right now.”
Of the 24 existing homeowners, nine decided to par-
ticipate in the substantial rehabilitation of their homes
at no cost to them so their houses would complement
the new houses being constructed. “We temporarily
relocated them while their homes were being rebuilt,
and then they moved back in,” says Johnson. Shep-
herd Smith, a Project Manager in the Community De-
velopment Department adds: “We also included two
replacement homes for two income-eligible homeown-
ers in that neighborhood, whose houses were deterio-
rated beyond repair and therefore could not be cost-
effectively rehabilitated.”
The Department of Community Development also
makes sure that the houses in its portfolio are afford-
able by providing “layered financing.” “If a potential
Southside homebuyer has an income defined as low to
moderate, they qualify for their primary lender’s first
mortgage, and would be assisted with three or four
