Good Hope renovation project done

When city government helps coordinate funding for people who want to buy and renovate rundown houses, the result can change the face of a neighborhood.

Thursday, officials from the worlds of city government, banking and not-for-profit groups celebrated the renovation of 18 homes in the Good Hope/Bloomfield street neighborhood in Cape Girardeau. Those homes, formerly derelict or renter-occupied, are now safe, sturdy and mostly occupant-owned.

The majority of the work, which took place over the past five years, was made possible by the state-run Community Development Block Grant Program, which awarded Cape Gir?ardeau $500,000 to renovate the area in 2002.

Cape Girardeau has renovated about 230 homes since it began participating in the CDBG program in 1982. The city provides in-kind labor for infrastructure improvements like sewer and sidewalk work to fulfill its local match requirement. Cape Gir?ardeau city workers contributed $135,000 in labor to the most recent neighborhood.

But state and city funds can be leveraged to secure even more money. Wood & Huston Bank and The Bank of Missouri each provided loans to help home?owners purchase the homes and complete some rehab work.

Wood & Huston Bank wrote loans averaging more than $50,000 for 10 properties in the area.

"Sometimes banks don't want to work with people with credit issues. There are companies that do that, but they charge a lot higher rate. We treat these people like they're any other borrower. We work with them to get their credit straightened out, discuss how to save for taxes and insurance. It's not just making a loan to somebody, it becomes a relationship," said Wood & Huston assistant vice president Becky Witherby.

Because the city pours so much money into upgrading the homes, banks are able to make loans based on projected resale value at the start of the project. This allows banks to make $50,000 loans on houses purchased for $10,000 or $20,000.

"There's a lot of equity when they're done, so the bank knows it's not going to lose money," said Witherby, who added her bank has had few problems collecting payment on the loans.

Other groups also got involved. The East Missouri Action Agency gave $150,000 for home improvements, the United Way of Southeast Missouri gave $12,000 for down payment assistance and AmerenUE gave money to help the houses operate more energy efficiently.

"When you put everything together, there's well over a million dollars going into this neighborhood. It's the leveraging process, that's why we had all the other folks at the table. It takes the total package to make that one target area work," said Steve Williams, assistant coordinator of the city's Planning Services office and the official in charge of the program.

But the net result is not measured only in dollars and cents. It's about lives altered.

Terry Sutterer, 47, along with his wife and three children moved into the home at 1005 Good Hope St. a year ago. Sutterer works as a day laborer for Manpower and says he can't imagine himself being a homeowner without the program.

"I have new windows, doors, siding, all of it. It's a great feeling to be a homeowner because you can do what you want with it. The kids have their own rooms and things. It's real nice for them," said Sutterer. He said he attempted to get loans in the past but balked when he encountered interest rates as high as 9 percent.

Homeownership, say experts, is the most important source of stability for a family.

"There's all sorts of research of what kind of impact that has on families as far as the children being more successful, and it all goes back to just being stable," said Nancy Jernigan, executive director of the United Way. "It's one of the things that gets to the root. You know, they say you never wash a rental car, and it's sort of the same thing here. You treat things differently if you own them."

Williams said the area was once troubled by crime but now has relatively few problems. A Neighborhood Watch group has been organized, and the city has ramped up its enforcement of codes.

"What happens when you go in and you fix up neighborhoods, you have homeowners instead of renters. It's much more stable," Williams said.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245