Posted by: sambarrington | August 13, 2009

Home Ownership

At our staff meeting yesterday we had a great conversation (with the help of some community experts…Ed Koczan, Sky Medors, and Jennifer Gregar) about some of the neighborhoods on the SouthEast Side of South Bend and some of the issues we’re facing.  I was struck by how much can be attributed to the lack of home ownership.  Once a neighborhood moves away from private home ownership (and towards rental properties) …the possibilities of spiraling crime, poverty, blight, etc. exponentially rises.  So, how do you bring back private home ownership in a community that has lost it?


Posted in Living Stones Church, South Bend, vision

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Responses

  1. Great insight…also, it has to be a shift toward home ownership in a semi-natural way, because just giving people homes to own doesn’t motivate them to take it seriously.

    What makes home ownership so impacting is that people invest a lot of themselves into it, providing motivation for forward progress.

    Take away the investment, you take away the motivation.

    By: Ryan on August 13, 2009
    at 11:03 am

  2. I think that homeownership, or lack thereof, is a symptom of greater community health or malaise. Homeownership seems to come naturally as a community becomes healthy. That’s where you need to focus, I think, more than on the homeownership.

    By: Jim on August 13, 2009
    at 11:17 am

  3. It’s freaking expensive and a lot of work to own a home, especially by yourself. I have a good job, don’t have the added work and expense of children, and I still struggle from time to time. When a normal family is a single income, single parent, how does home ownership become a reality?

    By: Melissa on August 13, 2009
    at 11:23 am

  4. Ryan makes a good point too that I guess I should have mentioned as well, because Sam you mentioned the homes over by High/Pennsylvania area- they look “nice” but Ive seen plenty of newer type homes trashed out on the insides due to the lack of caring and investment people have about the structure.

    Giving someone a house on its own isnt enough to make that pride of ownership enough.

    I think H4H is on a right path by making the owners invest the sweat and labor in making it “their” home, to really make the pride standout.

    One more idea I’ve had over the years is taking that homeownership idea and finding a qualified candidate through some sort of transitional program.. perhaps with the CFH or YWCA to get them involved as people prepare to get set out on their own again, kind of thing.

    By: Ed on August 15, 2009
    at 7:33 pm


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