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HISTORY OF SHED
SAFE Housing and Economic Development, Inc. (SHED) is providing housing
opportunities to low income first-time homebuyers in McDowell County,
West Virginia.
SAFE began the housing program with the development of the first
transitional housing facility for victims of domestic violence,
homeless women and their children. The former school building
that was donated to SAFE was transformed to 31 living units each
containing a bathroom, two child care centers, full-sized gymnasium,
thrift store, learning center, conference room, laundry rooms, office
space and dining areas. After raising over two million dollars
for the renovations, the facility opened in January 1997.
In March 1997 with help from Local Initiative Support Corporation
(LISC), SAFE began to work on a homeownership program to reach low
income families interested in becoming homeowners for the first
time. By leveraging funds from WVHDF through HUD funds for
HOME/CHDO, USDA-RD, SHOP funds from Housing Assistance Council and AHP
funds through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, over 1.5
million dollars in housing loans have been made to 27 families.
SAFE has tried to verify the improvement in their quality of life
through pictures of where they came from and their move to
homeownership.
In May 2000, SAFE began the development of 40 townhouses with a
community center which contains a computer lab, child care, laundry
facilities, kitchen, office and meeting area. The development of
this project was accelerated because of the devastating floods in July
2001 and May 2002. The project was enhanced because SAFE took the
lead to form a construction company to build 16 of the 40 units and the
2000 square foot community center with local labor which gave jobs to
10 people for two years plus they learned the expertise of building
townhouses. The units were completed utilizing CHDO/HOME funds
from HUD through WVHDF, Section 515 and Community Facility funds from
USDA-RD and Affordable Housing Program (AHP) from the Federal Home Loan
Bank of Pittsburgh. The project was completed in October 2002 and
totally rented with Section 8 and Section 515 subsidy in February 2003.
During completion of the homeownership and rental projects, SAFE saw
the need to form another non-profit called SAFE Housing and Economic
Development, Inc. (SHED) which was incorporated in November 2002.
SHED took ownership and management of the Elizabeth Drewry Apartments
located at Eckman, West Virginia in May 2003. The apartments are
named for the first African American woman in the West Virginia
Legislature. The fifteen apartments were built with funding from
USDA-Rural Development to serve the elderly and disabled with Section
515 subsidy. This development has been completely rehabilitated
and contains laundry facilities and a meeting room.
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