Housing project invests in Battle Creek neighborhood
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) — A Battle Creek church is leading the way in building 17 new houses in an effort to revitalize a neighborhood.
The Washington Heights United Methodist Church plans on establishing the affordable single-family homes on a large plot of land on Greenwood Avenue near Hubbard Street. Pastor Monique French says the effort, called the Recover Our Neighborhood project, is aimed to turn the tide for a community sorely in need of investment. She said the neighborhood has been neglected for decades.
“This used to be a very affluent community, but because it’s been very disinvested in, it’s fell on a lot of hardship,” French said.
French, also a Calhoun County commissioner, said 73% of Black people in Battle Creek don’t own homes.
“Homeownership could be an asset to bridge that generational wealth gap,” she told News 8 Thursday.
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The houses in the development will be two-, three- and four-bedrooms, each going on the market between $135,000 and $155,000. Construction on the first home began Thursday and French hopes it will finish by August.
The group has already secured funding for the first house thanks to grants and loans through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. It already has a resident planning on buying it, French said.
It is still working to secure full funding for the 16 other homes. It’s unclear when all of them will be complete.
A loan from the Battle Creek Community Foundation also helped with pre-development work for the greater project.
“I think it’ll help revitalize this community because a lot of times, people can’t hear what you say unless they know you care,” French said. “By us initiating this, it shows we really care about this community, we care about the people in the community.”
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The church has already renovated other homes thanks to hundreds of thousands of dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funding, like one right across the street from the project.
“Everybody should feel like they have a place,” French said. “We want the people to know you do have a place here in Washington Heights.”
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