ORLANDO, Fla. – Some of the boarded-up homes, with no signs of life, are beginning to disappear around the West Lakes Community.
For the past five years, the West Lakes Partnership has raised money to buy these homes and flip them into affordable single-family homes to sell to low to moderate-income families.
“It’s about $150,000 at the low end and averages about $175,000. That’s because we have to completely gut nothing left other than the masonry on the building,” Executive Director Timothy Ayers said.
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Ayers said these homes were built around the 1950s as vacation homes for Northerners and were owned by local black families for decades but were not taken over by their descendants.
The nonprofit saw this as a way to preserve the history and create opportunities for first-time home buyers.
The organization has flipped four of these houses so far.
Commissioner Shan Rose mentions that her office gave $4,000 to the West Lakes Partnership to help potential home buyers improve their credit scores.
“What are we doing to make sure that the next generation has an opportunity? That’s what this is. To bridge the wealth gap, but also create a home for generations to come. We want people to say that my mom lived here and my grandma lived here,” Rose said.
Ayers also notes that this week they secured vacant lots to build a multi-family townhouse with four units, and they expect to unveil their plan within the coming months.
The West Lakes Partnership is currently doing a fundraiser to help fund their next project, and they want the community to pitch in to help.