Simple Homes is our newest experiment in resurrection - taking abandoned houses and bringing them back to life, building a new world one house at a time.
Here’s how it works: we purchase an abandoned house for $15,000 and spend about $10,000 on renovations. Then we match it up with a neighbor who is ready to own his or her own home. We raise all the money so that we can finance it ourselves at 0% interest and 0% profit. The new homeowner pays $300 a month (about half of what most folks pay in rent) and in 10 years he or she owns the house. Our first home, 3228 Potter Street, is going to our neighbor and friend Miguel and his family.
Turning vacant houses into viable homes is one critical part of our holistic, integral work in combatting poverty and inequality and Simple Homes will be the vehicle for all things housing around here.
Simple Homes is our newest experiment in resurrection - taking abandoned houses and bringing them back to life, building a new world one house at a time.
Here’s how it works: we purchase an abandoned house for $15,000 and spend about $10,000 on renovations. Then we match it up with a neighbor who is ready to own his or her own home. We raise all the money so that we can finance it ourselves at 0% interest and 0% profit. The new homeowner pays $300 a month (about half of what most folks pay in rent) and in 10 years he or she owns the house. Our first home, 3228 Potter Street, is going to our neighbor and friend Miguel and his family.
Turning vacant houses into viable homes is one critical part of our holistic, integral work in combatting poverty and inequality and Simple Homes will be the vehicle for all things housing around here.
Over the past 15 years, Kensington has been our demonstration plot for love. It is on these broken streets we have made a habit of practicing and participating in resurrection. We’ve created murals on ugly walls and turned trash-filled lots into gardens. And we’ve rehabbed nearly a dozen houses, some of which we’ve bought for as little as $1. Not bad.
But it’s not all been that peachy keen. In fact, housing has been one of the most difficult things we’ve tried to do. There are some hard lessons we’ve learned over the years. For starters:
•There is a difference between building a house and building a home. You can build a house in a few months, but it takes years to build a home.
•It’s one thing to see someone get a house, and it’s another to see him or her keep it.
For these reasons and others, we’ve teamed up with Fuller Center for Housing – convinced, as always, that we can do more together than on our own.
Philadelphia has over 20,000 abandoned houses and over 30,000 vacant lots. We have 700 abandoned factories with over 150,000 lost jobs. Sometimes folks refer to our neighborhood here in Kensington as “the Badlands” because it has suffered the brunt of urban decay. We’re quick to remind them language like that was also used for a town called Nazareth, where folks said, “nothing good could come.” But we know what showed up in Nazareth. And every day we see God show up in Kensington.
It feels like we’re living into the prophecy of Isaiah 65: See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered… The sound of weeping and crying will be heard no more… Never will there be an infant in it who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years… They will BUILD HOUSES and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat… The wolf and the lamb will feed together… They will neither harm nor destroy anymore.
There’s a vacant house to renovate! Your donations will help us purchase the tools and materials necessary to rehab the house.
In our renovations we’ll build on the past two decades of relationships and experiences in Kensington along with 40 years of expert wisdom from Millard Fuller and friends at the Fuller Center for Housing and we’ll do it all in close collaboration with other friends who believe every person should have a dignified place to live. In fact, it all started from friendships!
One of the things that we talk about and value in our core commitments is moving into the abandoned spaces.
So here’s how it works - we get an abandoned house for $15,000 and spend about $10,000 on renovations. Then we match it up with a neighbor who is ready to own his or her own home.
We raise all the money so that we can finance it ourselves at 0% interest and 0% profit. The new homeowner pays about $300 a month (about half of what most folks pay in rent) and in 10 years owns the house. Sound too good to be true? Thanks to you we’re doing it! Our first home, 3228 Potter Street is going to long-time neighbor and friend Miguel and his family.
One day a few months ago, I told Shane I was thinking about moving out of the neighborhood. I didn’t want to move out of the neighborhood, and especially my daughter didn’t. But it was hard staying in the house with the kids growing up, and we didn’t have our own room. Shane said, ‘Don’t worry. The Lord will bless you. You just have to be patient.’
[Now] my daughter can’t stop thinking about telling all her friends that she’s going to have her own house and her own room. I’ve never been able to have a birthday party for her, and now she can’t wait to have a birthday party with her friends in her own home. The people I’ve told around my neighborhood and at the schools I work with are so happy. And The Simple Way staff is so happy. I’m very happy to stay in the neighborhood.
My son will come over more often and stay more at our house. I’m happy my family is together. I’ve got tears in my eyes now. Thank you to everyone for helping us get our dream house.
-Miguel Diaz
