43
YNDC to build three new homes in Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. broke ground to mark construction of three new homes on Helena Avenue in the Handel’s Neighborhood on the South Side.
This marks the first time the YNDC has undertaken new construction in the city. The houses will cost approximately $250,000, but the YNDC expects to sell them for about half that cost.
The Mahoning County Land Bank and PNC Bank partnered with YNDC for the project.
Tiffany Sokol, housing director for YNDC, said at Thursday’s groundbreaking, “We’re going to build the exterior to resemble the Craftsman-style homes that make up the neighborhood, but the interiors will be very modern with open floor plans.”
Doug Woods, vice president of the Handel’s Neighborhood Association, said while he was glad the houses would blend in with the neighborhood, he was more excited to see the development begin.
“I think it’s awesome. I didn’t think I’d ever see new homes built here,” Woods said.
Sokol said the YNDC decided to build homes on the street to help maintain its stability after a number of blighted houses turned over to the land bank were demolished.
“We have different strategies for different neighborhoods. So we’re not going to start putting houses up everywhere we work, but this is a pretty stable neighborhood, and we felt that after the demolitions there were just too many vacant lots on the street, so we wanted to restore it to its former stability,” Sokol said.
Deb Flora, the land bank’s executive director, said the groundbreaking was an example of the success of the ongoing partnership with YNDC.
“We knew from the beginning we wanted this to be an ongoing collaboration, with the sum of all of our work being total neighborhood revitalization,” Flora said. “Today is the closest we’ve come to that goal. It’s a moment of transformation we’re just realizing.”
The YNDC has prioritized increasing the number of homeowners in the city, so the new homes will be sold only to buyers who intend to actually live in them.
The construction on the first home is expected to finish in November.