2019, A Year In Review

Dear Friends and Supporters,

2020 has already gotten rolling, and as we look ahead to exciting growth in this New Year, we want to reflect with gratitude on the many encouraging successes from 2019. Below, we share a report on our various Housing Counseling Programs by our Deputy Director, Charia Jackson, as well as a note of review from our Executive Director, Steve Lockwood. 

We at FCDC wish you and your families a safe and prosperous new year! 

In Review | Steve Lockwood, Executive Director

2019 was a big year for Frayser, and for Frayser CDC. Housing prices steadily rose at a healthy rate. In all, 95 new owners purchased in Frayser in 2019. We can thank much of this dramatic increase to our FCDC Homeownership Campaign. This was all very encouraging, but honestly we have a lot of work left to do as most homes being bought in Frayser are still being swept up by investors.

Excitingly, the CDC sold 12 houses to new home owners – far more than in previous years. We completed construction on three brand-new houses off of Whitney, with two more are underway on Woodlawn at James. We sold our first new construction in December and signed a contract to build four more.
 

We continue to experiment with various tactics to swing the pendulum of home buying in Frayser towards individual home ownership. Lately, we’ve written letters to landlords all over the county offering to help sell their homes to the tenants, and while the work is slow, the response has been promising. 
 

A recent favorite story of mine is of a woman who attended one of our Home Buyer Education classes. She got the ownership bug, and called her landlord. He agreed to sell her the house. The bottom line? Her mortgage, including taxes and insurance, is $260 a month – down from rent of $700! While this is a bit of an unusually dramatic turn around, we need to continue to get the word out about the affordability of homes in Frayser. Home ownership IS possible. 

In other news – we have hired a new Business Director to replace Beverly Richardson, who will retire in 2020, after 16 dedicated years at the CDC. Mr. Eric Carter, a long-time Frayser resident, started work this January, and is a welcome addition to the FCDC team.
 

Lastly, we are thrilled to be celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the FCDC in 2020! Stay tuned for celebrations later in the year. 

To all of you who came to our Christmas party – I’m glad you were there, we had a great time.

All the best for the New Year.