BALTIMORE — Abandoned rowhomes fill a neighborhood in Harlem Park. It's a community that once was thriving and now thanks to one nonprofit, it will be made whole again.
A ribbon cutting took place Thursday evening for two rehabilitated homes. It's a dream come true, not only for Bree Jones who started the nonprofit ‘Parity’ that is revitalizing the rowhomes in Harlem Park, but also the people who get to buy them to call it home.
Jones says her approach is rehabilitating abandoned properties to create affordable homeownership for local residents.
She does this by working with future residents, getting them mortgage ready to qualify for a home, while also keeping the price at an affordable range.
These homes start at $260,000 for a five bedroom home.
This is the first two rowhomes of 96 in the Harlem Park that Parity is looking to rehabilitate.
Ako Boyd is one of the two owners of the newly rehabbed rowhome. His first walkthrough was Thursday.
He says he watched his new home be transformed from a boarded up, crumbled lot to a house of his dreams and hopes to inspire others.
"There's a bad stigma with the city in general and then with West Baltimore, and hopefully I can show that it's ok to live over here and with me kind of taking that leap, hopefully others will see oh ok you know what I see, what it used to look like, and I want to be apart of that too. I look at this like a lighthouse when you're at sea and you see that beacon of light and you keep pressing forward,” said Boyd.
All homes are pre-sold, and Parity is looking to rehab 200 homes total in Baltimore over the next few years. There are over 600 people on the waitlist for one of those.
The future Parity homes have flags above them in the Harlem Park neighborhood.
Jones says construction on the next five homes will start July 1.
