Latest News - Resident Survey and More

The Lancaster County Housing Opportunity Partnership (LHOP) stressed to us early on that it was important to find out what the people that live in the area think, what kind of help or services they might find useful, and what they're worried about.

                                     

We were very fortunate to have Dr. Mary Glazier, Director of Millersville University's Center for Public Scholarship and Social Change, give us not just advice, but also professional manpower get the survey out to the residents.

Over the last several weeks, staff and students with the Polling and Research Office of the Center for Public Scholarship have been visiting as many residents as possible on North Third Street.  The response rate has been very good - nearly 40 surveys completed!  The surveyors will be out one or two more times, trying to make contact with people they haven't talked to yet.

Other updates:

• Closing is on schedule for 255 North Third Street.  Work may start as soon as July, and could be done by fall or early winter!

• We are looking at creating a logo for the group and a nice sign for the house as work progresses.

• The working group met with Doug Phillips and has a lot on its plate with design standards and a rehab program.

• The HSC will likely get some publicity from articles in the Lancaster news next weekend, and possibly the Merchandiser.

• We would like to have a part-time coordinator to reach out to and organize volunteers, donations, and materials.  Pastor Elizabeth is looking into ways to make this happen.

AND, as always, if you would like to be involved in any way, please let us know.  And like and share our Facebook page - let's get the word out!

Inside 255

This weekend, we visited 255 North Third and took a few photographs.  We wanted to get some solid "before" shots to compare to the "after," down the road.

There's no way around it; it's a big project and will take a lot of work.  But, there's also so much potential.

This is the main living area.  Like a few row homes on this block, it probably had floor length front windows originally.  At some point, they were exchanged for standard-sized replacement windows.  The fireplace surround was also redone at some point.

And here is an upstairs bedroom.  The exterior door leads to a balcony, the open door leads to the back staircase and two other bedrooms, and the quirky elevated door is a closet.

The sole bathroom in the house is in bad shape.  It hadn't functioned for a while even before the house was vacated.  The kitchen has a wall of cabinetry but otherwise is a blank slate.    

The kitchen and bath are a large chunk of the heavy duty work in the house, but all of the rooms need repairs small and large.  Deep cleaning, new flooring, patching, paint, the works.

255 is just a perfect example of the kind of property we were looking for, and despite the challenges, we're glad to have it, and to get the renovations underway in the next month or two!