BY JEAN WILLIAMS
Enquirer Contributor
Sister Ann-Rene McConn is in the home-rehab business, and the results build communities and families.
Her agency, Cincinnati Housing Partners, takes a housing disaster, restores it and resells it to a low-income, first-time home buyer. Headquartered on Glenmore Avenue in Westwood, the agency has restored 80 houses since she founded it in 1986.
An abandoned, fire-gutted house was transformed into an elegant painted lady on Westwood Avenue in South Fairmont. "That house, in Columbia Tusculum, would be $150,000," says Sister McConn. Restoration cost more than $100,000 and the house sold for $65,000. While that sounds like a loss, the gain is in property taxes and community strength, she says.
Darlene and Adam Miller bought their Lincoln Heights home from Housing Partners two years ago. Mrs. Miller says the move from renters to homeowners gave the couple "more sense of community and responsibility for what goes on in our neighborhood."
"They've been doing an excellent job here in Lincoln Heights," says William Kohbarger, Lincoln Heights city manager. While it's too soon to see the effect on home appraisals, "they're bringing in working families as homeowners, and that's what we need."
Sister McConn was working for the city of Cincinnati as a liaison with neighborhood groups when she "saw firsthand what was happening to the Millcreek neighborhoods." As homeowners gave way to absentee landlords, those areas began to decline, she said. With that, "you lose your scout leaders and PTA members," and, she adds, clout with city government.
It took 18 months to talk the city into the first grant; and the agency was on its way to rehabbing houses in Price Hill, Westwood, Lincoln Heights, South Fairmont, Northside, Lockland and the East End. "Carthage is my favorite place to work," she says. The housing stock is affordable and Housing Partners receives cooperation and help from civic groups.
Most houses acquired by CHP are castoffs that "absolutely no one else will deal with," Sister McConn said. Housing Partners spends an average of $23,000 per house beyond sale price, and receives federal financing as well as grants.
"They fight hard to get the bucks they get," says Centennial Bank loan officer Jack Haders. Centennial and other banks offer home buyers federally sponsored, low-interest loans.
"In South Fairmont, especially on Fairmont Avenue, they put very good workmanship and materials in the houses," says Mr. Haders. In time, he noticed, surrounding residents and even absentee landlords got the hint and spruced up their properties.
