Trenton native is paving the path for low income families to find their way to homeownership, creating a program that helps residents redevelop abandoned properties, helping to build up the capital city using what it already has.
Rather than tear it down.
Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports.
As part of our ongoing series Chasing the Dream, focusing on poverty, justice and economic opportunity.
I didn't want to spend a penny more renting.
I wanted to own something and I wanted to leave something behind to my children and my family.
Vanessa Solivan is now officially a Trenton homeowner.
The dilapidated building behind her just purchased through the New Beginnings Housing Program that Solivan herself helped the city of Trenton launch.
This used to be my grandmother's house, so I played in this house as a girl and I know is potential.
And I'm very excited.
I have my beautiful garden.
The idea came from Solivan's persistent request that the town council and mayor help her turn the abandoned property into one she could redevelop.
Mayor Reed Gusciora found a way to make it work.
What we used is a dried up fund from regional contribution agreements that towns that didn't want to do affordable housing.
They would give money to the urban areas We're utilizing those lapsed funds for this purpose to rehabilitate Vanessa's home and then give it to to her.
Gusciora says the program is different from others that have failed in the past because this is no handout.
Homeowners like Vanessa have to have skin in the game.
She had to demonstrate that she had financial literacy, that she could pay taxes, that she could pay utilities.
How I was able to have those funds was I used my entire income tax refund to purchase the home and my legal fees, which came to a total of $5,000.
The program is specifically for people like myself that are working and are making between 30 to 35,000 a year.
With somewhere near a thousand abandoned properties around the city.
The Mayor is exploring ways to really expand this program, using a combination of government funding as well as some outside funding sources.
We're starting out small where we're going to utilize the RCA funds until they dry up and then we're going to work with other nonprofits and try to expand the program and raise money in the future.
And while the city is still figuring out what that growth will look like, Solivan has a clear goal.
I hope to get 20 more families in homes within the next three years.
There's a benefit to Trenton for expanding this program.
Abandoned properties that attract crime will now stabilize housing for Trenton residents and generate tax revenue for the city.
It's a couple of thousand dollars a year and that Vanessa here on out will have to pay for those property taxes.
Her mom, who lives just across this garden that Vanessa now owns as part of the sale, has no doubt her daughter will be a success.
She's still going to keep going.
She ain't quitting yet, she's going further forward now.
I'm there for her.
This moment of returning, what was once her grandmother's home to the next generation, an emotional one for both mom and daughter.
If ya'll only knew all the memories we had in here.
And we're going to have more now.
You know, because the family's gotten bigger and is growing.
So I'm very proud of my daughter.
And to help other families achieve the same dream of home ownership.
Solivan plans to turn her front room into a storefront.
Have meetings here, community meetings, and also let this be the headquarters for New Beginnings.
So if any family or anybody has any questions they want to ask me about the process.
I'm very open to sharing my experience.
And in partnership with the Princeton Justice Initiative, the next five families that apply for homeownership will receive free legal services.
Proving it takes a village to create one.
In Trenton, I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.
Major funding for Chasing the Dream is provided by the Jpb Foundation with additional funding from the Peter G. Peters and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund.
