116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Work begins on home in Wellington Heights
CEDAR RAPIDS - Four Oaks and its Affordable Housing Network broke ground Tuesday on the first new home in an 18-block core area of the Wellington Heights neighborhood in some 50 years.
The new home is part of agency's ambitious effort to upgrade housing in a portion of the old southeast Cedar Rapids neighborhood as part of the agency's TotalChild project.
In total, the agency is raising $6 million, half of which is being used on the purchase and renovation of dilapidated properties and half to provide support to children who are participating in the TotalChild program.
The agency is planning to improve about 100 properties in the 18-block area in addition to building four new houses. The local Neighborhood Development Corp. also is planning to build a new house in the program area.
Financial support provided through the city of Cedar Rapids' post-flood housing replacement effort is helping provide incentives for the five new houses in the 18-block area of Wellington Heights.
Josh and Alyssa Hulme have agreed to buy the first new house, construction on which began Tuesday at 1402 Fourth Ave. SE.
The Hulmes and plans for the new house were featured in local news stories in March.
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Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette Holding his four-month-old son Silas (right) homeowner Josh Hulme (center) hugs Wellington Heights neighbor and fellow neighborhood association board member Angie Shultz as she becomes emotional Tuesday after a groundbreaking for the first new home to be built in 50 years in the 18-block area in Wellington Heights in southeast Cedar Rapids. 'This has been a long time coming,' said Shultz of the amount of time and effort to get the neighborhood to where it is now. Shultz has been involved in the Wellington Heights neighborhood since 1992. Hulmes and his wife Alyssa, who have lived in the Wellington Heights neighborhood for several years, are buying the new $150,000 house utilizing financial assistance from the Affordable Housing Network, Inc. The assistance will greatly lower the mortgage amount at closing and give the Hulmes a large amount of equity in their new home. The housing network has a goal to build five new single-family houses in the 18-block area this year.
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