Carver YMCA (2009)

On another rainy Tuesday, CityLights met inside the beautiful Carver Family YMCA building in the neighbor of South Atlanta. Many friends represented the neighborhood and shared their connections to South Atlanta over lunch, such as neighborhood resident Mazie Lynn Causey, several members from the Church of Greater Works, staff from a community charter school, and a headmaster from a Christian school. Then, we heard from both FCS Co-Executive Director Nate Ledbetter and from Executive Director of Charis Community Housing Jim Wehner about the investments they are making into the lives of the South Atlanta neighborhood citizens.

Nate Ledbetter shared about not only the challenges of working in the neighborhood, but also the beauty. While there is much crime and poverty in the area, FCS (formerly Family Consultation Services, and now Focused Community Strategies) emphasizes community development and finds that with relationships come stronger neighborhoods.  FCS partners with thirteen groups that are working together toward the FCS vision, one of which is Charis Community Housing.  

Jim Wehner, Charis Executive Director, explained the process Charis undergoes in refurbishing a foreclosed property and then selling it.  Jim reported that, as of October 2009, there were 190 vacant homes out of 531 total homes in the South Atlanta neighborhood.  When a home is sold, the transaction is either done through their Affordable Housing program, where Charis owns the mortgage and requires to-be buyers to complete home ownership training, or their Workforce Housing program, which exists for buyers approved for conventional loans. Charis is currently working to refurbish and sell fifty of the vacant homes. Each home provides a family an opportunity to gain equity in a property while also developing a strong sense of ownership in a community. 

For more information about FCS, please go to www.fcsministries.org.  Charis Community Housing’s website is www.chariscommunity.org.