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Linda Thompson is questioned on her non profit company LOVES.H.I.P.
Thompson is asked about personal loans between herself and her company Loveship, what if any student loans she is responsible for, and what is the status of property located at 2308 Jefferson Street, a vacant blighted boarded up row house that is referenced to on the Loveshipinc.org as a success story.
From The Patriot News - Success Stories: Agency leaves family feeling right at home.
By Jim Lewis of The Patriot-News | The Patriot-News | October 17, 2007.
Her dream house is an abandoned, beaten-up row home with boarded-up windows, a leaky roof and graffiti scrawled on its brick facade. But Rashelle Davis can't beat the price it's free and sees potential beyond the blight.
Once the vacant house at 2308 Jefferson St. is renovated, Davis with move into and eventually own the home she dreamed about for herself and her husband, Rasheen, and the couple's three children.
The Davises were awarded the house by a Harrisburg nonprofit agency that, for the first time, acquired a vacant home to give to a low-or moderate-income family that can't get a conventional mortgage from a bank.
The goal of the agency, Loveship, is to provide home ownership while reducing the number of vacant houses and renters in the city's uptown section, said Linda Thompson, City Council member and the president and chief executive officer of Loveship.
The Davises were one of 100 families that applied with Loveship for a chance at the free house.
It will cost tens of thousands of dollars to renovate the four-bedroom house, and will take about 90 days of labor, estimated James McKamey, a representative of Reynolds Construction Management, a local firm that will oversee the work.
As the Davises, who currently live an apartment got their first glimpse of the house, Rashelle imagined how nice it will be. "I have so many ideas, I can't wait," she said.
Loveship has coached low-income families on buying their first homes and getting mortgages. The agency decided last year to acquire a house on its own and give it to a family that would have struggled to get a mortgage, according to Thompson.
She hopes to award a house to a family every year, if she can find the money to afford such a giveaway. About 27 percent of Harrisburg's housing units are vacant, and more than half of the inhabited homes about 57 percent ? are occupied by renters, Thompson said.
Loveship bought the house from the Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority, which acquired it, for $1, and with help from the city, Wachovia Bank, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency and others it launched the competition at the Greater Harrisburg Annual Home Ownership Expo that Thompson's agency has held every year.
Loveship will own the house for the next 10 years, and the Davises will live there mortgage-free. The house could become theirs if they meet several requirements over the years.
The Davises must put money into a savings account, maintained by Loveship, to pay for the maintenance, and live there for the next 10 years, Thompson said. The Davises must pay for the utilities and must attend homeowner counseling sessions provided by Loveship.
The initiative is a "creative" way to bring urban renewal to blighted neighborhoods while giving renters their own home, she said,
"It's about teaching the family about home ownership and wealth accumulation she said.
Copyright 2008 The Patriot-News