DEVELOPMENT: New home on A Street one of many on the way

Niagara Gazette

June 04, 2007 12:10 am

— DEVELOPMENT: New home on A Street one of many on the way
BY RICK PFEIFFER/pfeifferr@gnnewspaper.com
John Jones and Tammy Saylor came to Niagara Falls to escape.
“It was to get away from the scene in Buffalo,” Jones said on Sunday afternoon. “You got gang banging and drug activity and that moved in next door to me.”
In 2002 they arrived at Monteagle Ridge, but fearing that neighborhood was now becoming troubled, Jones and Saylor decided they needed to make another change.
They started looking for a way to buy a home of their own. Luckily for Jones, a relative told him about Habitat for Humanity.
“She was like, I can give you an application,” he said. “So I just took it and ran with it.”
By Christmastime, Jones and his family should become the owners of Niagara Area Habitat’s newest home at 35 A St. The ground has been broken, a foundation poured and Jones, his family and a lot of volunteers are ready to start building.
“I’m thrilled about it,” Jones said. “I’d been driving by a lot and when I saw the (mound of dirt) and (the concrete foundation), I was so blessed.”
The newest Habitat home here is a joint project between the local housing group and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Thrivent will pay 75 percent of the cost of construction of the four-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath home, in addition to 50 percent of the volunteer labor.
“We always put our members first, and we have a large number of our members engaged with Habitat,” said Noreen Hy, Thrivent’s community services specialist. “This was a natural for us.”
Thrivent is also involved in building Habitat homes in Buffalo and, nationwide, has ponied up $105 million over the last four years for similar projects nationwide.
Jones’ home will be the third Habitat project in the area of A and B streets. More homes will likely follow, because of a large grant of property there from DuPont.
“Originally homes were built in this area for people working on the power project,” said Niagara Area Habitat President Claudia Folsom. “Then (the properties) were taken over by DuPont, for their workers so they could just walk across (nearby Buffalo Avenue) to the plant.”
With the decline of local industry, a real estate representative for DuPont approached Habitat here and asked if they would be interested in small home at 79 A St. The Habitat planner thought the home would be prefect for a family on their waiting list.
“They (DuPont) said, ‘If you like that home, have we got a bargain for you.’,” Folsom laughed. “That, plus I think they were tired of cutting the grass.”
In total, DuPont deeded 63 parcels of land to Habitat. Folsom believes the parcels, collectively, could yield 19 lots that are suitable for homes.
Jones will need to contribute 500 hours of labor on the home, what Habitat calls “sweat equity” as a down payment. Despite a heart condition, that limits his ability to work, Jones says he’s looking forward to that.
“I’ve done general contracting work,” he said, “so I do have some skills.”
When the home is finished, Jones will pay an interest free mortgage and property taxes. Habitat says it has added $650,000 to the Falls property tax rolls with its projects here.
“This is something I’ve wanted for awhile,” Jones said. “I’m gonna be here, get some hands on experience. It’ll be thrilling.”
Contact reporter Rick Pfeifferat 282-2311, ext. 2252.