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Five-year-old Sylvester Henry and his cousin, Ronald Williams, 6, in their new Houston neighborhood. The boys arrived here last fall after Katrina's fury and a harrowing escape from New Orleans. Photo: Jackson Smith |
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After a harrowing escape from Hurricane Katrina’s fury, 5-year-old Sylvester Henry, his younger brother Kenneth and cousin Ronald Williams are among the evacuees living in Chelsea Court Apartments in Houston, thanks to the relocation efforts of the National Housing Trust–Enterprise Preservation Corporation. The apartment community is owned by NHT-Enterprise, a joint venture of Enterprise and the National Housing Trust.
An eerie calm hung over New Orleans after Katrina subsided. Ronald and Kenneth were at their grandmother’s house, where their mother had brought them before taking her feverish infant to the hospital. When the water started to rise, the boys’ grandmother led them to the second floor and then the attic, where she had to break through the roof with a sledgehammer.
The next day Kenneth turned 3. Huddled on the roof, they sang “Happy Birthday” and ate the special cupcakes their grandmother had carried up to the attic. And they prayed they would be rescued in time. When angels arrived in Coast Guard uniforms, their helicopter could fit only three more passengers, so their grandmother stayed behind. Ten days later, after a jumble of shelters and buses and planes and desperate cell phone calls, the family found each other and reunited in Houston at the Chelsea Court Apartments.
NHT-Enterprise preserves affordable rental developments like Chelsea Court in communities nationwide. In 2005, we helped 200 families displaced by the Gulf tragedy to secure decent, safe housing in these properties. We continue to provide a range of resident services, from on-site employment counseling for adults to computer classes and other after-school activities for youth like Sylvester, Ronald and Kenneth. The boys and their family have no place to call “home” in New Orleans anymore. Floods destroyed their grandmother’s house, and harsh winds blew the roof off Ronald’s mother’s house. But, after a miraculously happy ending, their family is together and safe in Houston, which they have decided to make their new home.
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Enterprise finances local groups working to preserve affordable housing in hot real estate markets. Photo: Mike Elliott |
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Real estate is always in high demand in New York City. In recent years, Chinatown and the Lower East Side have faced intensified pressure from gentrification and speculation.
Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) has long fought to provide decent, affordable housing for residents in these vibrant, historic neighborhoods. Today, that fight is often to preserve the affordable housing that is already in place.
Using funds from the Enterprise Partners Growth Fund for bridge financing, and with additional support from the city of New York, AAFE was able to purchase two Chinatown buildings to preserve 36 units of affordable housing, so families will continue to have a good place to call home. “We have a long relationship with Enterprise. It is a mutual, strong partnership that enables us to provide the housing that’s needed in this community,” says Executive Director Chris Kui.
Enterprise has stepped up with more than just short-term financing to help make a difference in New York, one of America’s toughest housing markets. “Enterprise has helped us to mature as an organization and take on new approaches,” Kui explains. “Together, we’ve opened and continue to open lots of doors for Asian Americans and new immigrants.”
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Enterprise's Green Communities initiative is bringing safe, environmentally friendly homes to Atlanta's low-income residents. |
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The Booker T. Washington neighborhood on the west side of downtown Atlanta lies at the heart of an urban renaissance—adjacent to the Atlanta University Center and its five colleges, and close to all the major Atlanta attractions. Housing here, which had largely fallen into decline, is making a turnaround. Vacant lots are sprouting new homes, and a number of them are coming up green.
“We were looking at doing green houses but it was cost prohibitive,” explains Pete Hayley, executive director of University Community Development Corporation (UCDC). “But then Enterprise introduced Green Communities. It eliminates the cost and complexity of building green and you still get the same result, saving energy and water and giving people a healthy place to live.”
Today, the 35 new homes of UCDC’s University Estates are bringing energy, water and transportation savings to their residents, in environments that are free from the heavy doses of volatile organic compounds commonly found in paints, sealants and composite wood. Bus stops, the rail station and retail stores are all within walking distance.
“We wanted to incorporate these features and principles into our homes,” Hayley continues, “and when Green Communities came out, everything we wanted to do was in there. They’ve been really innovative in taking the best out of green building programs and making it doable for affordable housing producers.
“Thanks to Green Communities,” Hayley concludes, “we’re doing everything green!” |
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