It is just the first rehabbed home out of 10 in the community, but that was enough for Cheri Whitney to proclaim proudly, “The pride of Edgemoor is back.”
Whitney, director of the Edgemoor Revitalization Cooperative, was among a group of community and New Castle County leaders on hand Wednesday to welcome Michelle Lamonica back to the street where she grew up.
DFM News visits the first rehabbed home sold in Edgemoor Blueprint Community
DFM News visits the first rehabbed home sold in Edgemoor Blueprint Community
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Lamonica, a third-generation Edgemoor Gardens resident, is moving into the house at 37 South Pennewell Drive, next door to her mother, Donna, who moved into the neighborhood in the 1970s. She is paying $72,000 for the home, rehabilitated through the county’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program. In a partnership with Interfaith Community Housing of Delaware and the cooperative, the county has purchased 10 homes in the neighborhood. Several are on sale now and all should have new owners or be on the market within 18 months, said Marcus Henry, general manager of the county’s Department of Community Services. Countywide, about 60 homes have already been rehabbed through the program and federal funding is pending to do 15 to 20 more, he said.
“Michelle is a pioneer,” Henry said in a ceremony outside Lamonica’s new home. “Her commitment to Edgemoor Gardens symbolizes exactly what is needed to transform this community.”
That transformation began six years ago, when Whitney led a small group of women in forming the cooperative to start fighting the blight that often destroys lower-income communities. Two years later, Edgemoor Gardens was chosen as one of Delaware’s first Blueprint Communities, and the training cooperative members received through that program, created by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, resulted in a long-range revitalization plan that included housing rehabilitation as an integral component.
“Blueprint Communities brought us together,” Whitney said. “They trained us, they taught us, they challenged us.”
While the housing rehabilitation may be the revitalization’s most visible achievement, much more work remains. Whitney said the cooperative is trying to build adult community involvement, beautify eight acres of open space and prod government leaders to move on preliminary plans for a rail and bus transit hub near the Interstate 495 Edgemoor interchange.
“We want to make Edgemoor Gardens a neighborhood of choice,” she said.
Edgemoor Gardens is “a community that has some age on it,” County Executive Paul G. Clark said, “but the basic shells of these homes were built well. They have lasted a long time and they just needed a little help.”
All the rehabbed homes have been gutted. The “help” they received includes energy-efficient appliances, doors, windows, heating and cooling systems and tankless water heaters.
“From top to bottom, we have everything from a new roof to new windows,” said Lamonica, who works in a Wilmington dental office and now lives in the Little Italy section of the city. One feature she especially likes: replacing the former ground floor heater room with a bath and a laundry room.
Clark pointed out that “turning vacant properties into stable homes contributes to attractive, safe and welcoming neighborhoods.”
Echoing Whitney’s view, he said that rebuilding neighborhoods requires more than rehabilitation of their housing stock. Working with residents is also critical. “You can fix up the house but if you don’t work on the holistic part of it, you may not get the results you want,” he said.
Among those supporting the revitalization has been County Councilman John J. Cartier, whose district includes eastern Brandywine Hundred. “We never accepted that this community would remain a troubled place. That just wasn’t in the vocabulary,” he said. “If you work with your partners, you can bring change to the communities.”
During the ceremony, Cartier presented Whitney with a $1,000 check from his county grants budget to support the cooperative’s programming.
“The county really supports our efforts,” Whitney said. “They realize that the work we do is integral to making all these big projects happen.”
For Lamonica, seeing the excitement outside her new home was almost as thrilling as the prospect of moving in on Friday.
She hopes the rehab effort will not only bring more homeowners into Edgemoor Gardens but that it will also encourage landlords to “step up their game and take better care of their properties.”
“I couldn’t be more pleased with the way things are turning out in the neighborhood,” she said.