Community leaders say homeownership is one of the best ways to build wealth that also contributes to neighborhood stability and cohesion.
“Affordable housing is a challenge that has plagued this neighborhood and really communities across our nation for decades,” Omega CDC President Vanessa Ward said during a community preview event for the new homes on McCleary Avenue. “It has impacted families, stability and opportunity, but today is different ... we celebrate what happens when a community’s voice is heard and partners respond with action.”
The Northwest Dayton Pathway to Homeownership program plans to raise and invest millions of dollars to construct 30 new homes over the next three years for first-time homebuyers who meet income eligibility requirements.
Started in 2021, the Pathway to Homeownership program helped build 19 new homes for first-time buyers as part of local recovery efforts in response to the devastating 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes. The Wright-Patt Credit Union Sunshine Community Fund is going to provide an initial investment of $1.3 million for a new phase of home construction in northwest Dayton.
Two houses are nearly finished on the 700 block of McCleary Street in the Fairview neighborhood. Fairview is home to about 1,800 residents, the Premier Health YMCA on the former Good Samaritan Hospital site, churches, businesses, a large park and other amenities.
Dayton unfortunately experienced significant redlining years ago, and Fairview was a hard-hit neighborhood, said Timothy Mislansky, president and CEO of Wright-Patt Credit Union. But Mislansky said the new Pathway to Homeownership initiative is a good step toward reversing the damage caused by discriminatory practices of the past.
“We know homeownership is one of the best ways that people can build wealth in their family and transfer that wealth generation to generation,” he said. “We know homeownership creates strong economic stability for families and community.”
Omega CDC says about 71% of residents in that part of the city are renters, and 43% of households are cost-burdened, which means they are spending a large share of their income on housing costs.
Omega CDC, a sister organization to Omega Baptist Church, is the lead on the Hope Zone, which is an effort to improve the lives of thousands of kids and families in northwest Dayton neighborhoods in the areas of education, economic stability, community engagement and health and wellness.
The two homes under construction are being built by Unibilt, a Vandalia-based company.
Unibilt assembles custom modular homes in sections inside a factory that are delivered to project sites for installation. Unibilt says these are not manufactured homes, like trailers or double-wides — they are permanent structures that basically are indistinguishable from traditional stick-built houses that are erected from the ground up on site.
Unibilt is going to build a third home on the 700 block of McCleary Avenue, plus a fourth and a fifth on the 2100 blocks of Auburn and Malvern avenues, which are also in the Fairview neighborhood. Unibilt has constructed more than 13,000 modular homes in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and other states since the company was founded in 1969.
Modular homes can be 5% to 10% less expensive to construct than stick-built homes, and they are a higher quality and quicker to build, because they are made in a controlled environment where the weather is not a factor, said Greg Barney, president of Unibilt.
“We are building inside so we can maintain a schedule,” he said. “It can rain for a week, and we’re still building.”
It’s possible Unibilt may build some or possibly even all of the new homes in northwest Dayton. All of the homes will go up on vacant lots around Dayton.
The new homes are priced at $170,000, which is about $80,000 to $100,000 less than what they cost to build, said Steve Naas, president of County Corp, a private not-for-profit development company.
County Corp said constructing ten homes costs about $2.5 million, which leaves a roughly $1 million funding gap. But money from the Sunshine Community Fund will help close the gap.
First-time home-seekers interested in the homes will qualify for purchase if they earn up to 120% of the area median income, which is $101,350 for a household of three. The one-story homes are 1,300 square feet and have three bedrooms, two full baths and garages.
“These homes offer plenty of space for the first time homebuying family and an opportunity for the transformational wealth building that comes with homeownership,” Naas said.
Other partners involved in the Pathway to Homeownership program include CityWide and Learn to Earn.
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