Scott Johnson, Montgomery Advertiser, June 31, 2014
The Rev. Robert Wagstaff said he hopes she is the first of many to own homes renovated by ACTS CDC on E.D. Nixon.
“This is just a stepping stone, and we want others to come along and partner with us,” said Wagstaff, who teams with Bernard Lee to head ACTS CDC.
Wagstaff and Lee said their goal is to redevelop the entirety of E.D. Nixon Avenue, and they already have acquired the house directly next door.
Lee said it will not be an easy task to redevelop E.D. Nixon, where many houses have been neglected for years. Boarded-up and dilapidated structures remain on the block where Worthy’s home sits.
“We want to renovate and reinvigorate this neighborhood, whether it is by house to house or block to block,” Lee said.
The city contributed a grant of about $12,000 in federal Housing and Urban Development money to the project, while County Commissioner Jiles Williams contributed $10,000 in discretionary funds.
“I knew the people who were running this. I could trust them. I knew they were serious-minded people, and I know they are community-oriented people,” Williams said.
Worthy had to go through credit counseling and learn some of the finer points of owning a home, said The Rev. Charles Thomas, chairman of the ACTS CDC Housing Committee.
“We didn’t want to turn someone loose in a home who didn’t understand all the ramifications of being a homeowner,” Thomas said.
Worthy inherited her mother’s home, but this is her first time buying one, and her excitement about it was obvious Thursday as she seemed to be constantly smiling.
Lee said homeownership is a key to what ACTS CDC is trying to do.
“When a person owns the property, their ability, their self-pride, their motivation to take care of the property, all of those things go up,” Lee said. “Matter of fact, they’ll become an advocate for this community, and that’s what we really want.