NOAH takes on another project

Efforts are finally under­way to do some­thing about the approx­i­mately 450+ vacant homes in Galion and oth­ers in sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties. Some homes are being pur­chased by indi­vid­u­als or bulk buy­ers look­ing to make large prof­its, but the NOAH Project is not inter­ested in large prof­its, but, rather in clean­ing up eye­sores in the area. Su Rowles, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of The Noah Project, a non­profit com­mu­nity devel­op­ment 501c3 cor­po­ra­tion is announc­ing plans to reha­bil­i­tate sev­eral of these homes and sell­ing them at costs below their fair mar­ket value.

A Land Bank would help to solve this sit­u­a­tion. Land Banks were estab­lished in Ohio in 2009 and can legally take over aban­doned prop­er­ties that are not cared for. Land Banks have been extremely suc­cess­ful in clean­ing up deserted prop­er­ties in cities and, at times, even bull­doz­ing these prop­er­ties. How­ever, the re-quirement to estab­lish a Land Bank is a min­i­mum pop­u­la­tion level of 60,000 in the county. Unfortu-nately, Craw­ford County only has a res­i­dent pop­u­la­tion of 43,000. This require­ment may change due to the suc­cess of the pro­gram so far.

Su Rowles and Bar­bara Sullinger, Assis­tant Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of The Noah Project are announc­ing a new pro­gram for revi­tal­iza­tion of area homes to be known as NOAH Faith, Inc. C.A.R.E (S), (Com-munity Action Rehab-ilitation Efforts. Homes selected for future rehab will be reviewed by a team of local area pro­fes­sion­als already assem­bled. The NOAH Project is the only non­profit, Civic Commun-ity devel­op­ment hous­ing orga­ni­za­tion in Craw­ford County cer­ti­fied by the State of Ohio as a com­mu­nity hous­ing devel­op­ment organization.

Their first house is presently being pur­chased from Galion Build­ing and Loan at a rea­son­able price. NOAH Faith, Inc. C.A.R.E (S) will be work­ing with Home Depot, a num­ber of local busi­nesses and a local con­trac­tor to reha­bil­i­tate this home. Home Depot has been extremely instru­men­tal in design work and keep­ing costs down while incor­po­rat­ing qual­ity mate­ri­als. The three bed­room ranch home will have a totally new kitchen with oak cab­i­nets and all new appli­ances includ­ing a new refrig­er­a­tor, stove, microwave and dish­washer. Six panel doors will replace exist­ing ones through­out the house. All mate­ri­als used will be new includ­ing tub/showers, toi­lets, van­i­ties, mir­rors, lights and floor­ing. All inte­rior rooms will be freshly painted with car­pet­ing and light fix­tures and trim. A high-efficiency gas fur­nace and cen­tral air-conditioning sys­tem will keep the res­i­dents toasty warm in the win­ter and refresh­ingly cool through­out the sum­mer. Also, a 200 amp elec­tri­cal ser­vice will be installed. The exte­rior will have a new shin­gled roof (30 year war­ranty by the man­u­fac­turer), sid­ing and out­door lights, a steel front door with a storm door, a new garage door, dou­ble hung energy effi­cient win­dows, and a deck lead­ing off the dining/family room for out­door enjoy­ment. In short, this will basi­cally be a brand new home. A buyer shouldn’t have to be con­cerned about main­te­nance or repairs for quite some time.

The result of this effort will mean that these homes will be appraised at higher val­ues result­ing in increased rev­enue for the county and will ben­e­fit our schools, city, police and fire depart­ments and will enhance the val­ues of homes sur­round­ing these prop­er­ties, a win-win sit­u­a­tion for all.

This project is being locally funded and will be what The NOAH Project hopes to be the first of many area homes that will be reha­bil­i­tated and sold to fam­i­lies at rea­son­able prices. Local con­trac­tor Brad Gib­son of IR Con­cepts will be doing the work. Inter­ested par­ties should call The NOAH Project at 419–683-3700.