DATE: Thursday, July 17, 1997               TAG: 9707170499

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   65 lines

AUTHORITY'S VOTE HELPS FAMILY TO BUILD A DREAM

Gene Cuffee and his wife, Beulah, raising four children in the city's Broadlawn Park public housing community, have had a landlord their entire married lives. Now they want something more.

``It's always been my dream to own my own home. . . . They told me I'm next in line,'' said 42-year-old Gene Cuffee, a maintenance worker who has saved for homeownership over the past nine years and waited on a list for the past three.

Wednesday night, the Cuffees moved closer than ever before to a home - and a mortgage - of their own, thanks to a vote by the city's housing agency.

The Redevelopment and Housing Authority unanimously approved a proposal to buy a vacant residential lot and then donate it to South Hampton Roads Habitat for Humanity Inc. The nonprofit home-building organization, in turn, will oversee construction of a home on the lot, then sell the house to a qualified, first-time homeowner from the city's subsidized-housing community.

In this case, officials said, the Cuffees are up.

This idea of the public housing residents graduating to home ownership is consistent with the authority's long-term goal of making life in public housing a temporary condition, officials said.

``I would love the authority to buy a lot every month,'' housing authority official Brenda G. Willis said. But Willis said a federal program to purchase land for newly constructed homes also must fund the authority's efforts in securing homeowners' low-interest loans for repairs and mortgage obligations.

It's a public-private partnership that has been repeated in the city five times already since 1993, with three homes now occupied on Wingfield Avenue and two more under construction on authority-donated land.

``What we did was go through South Norfolk, an area we are looking to revitalize, and came up with five or six lots. And Habitat has an engineer to make sure they're buildable,'' Willis said.

The housing authority will offer $9,000 for a 50-foot-by-100-foot lot between 1902 and 1906 Stonehurst Street designated for the Cuffees.

``This is looking to be a very fast turnaround: 30 to 40 days from the time they showed us the property to the time we start construction, and construction averages about 16 to 20 weeks,'' said Sylvia M. Hallock, the executive director of South Hampton Roads Habitat for Humanity.

Hallock said work with other housing authorities in South Hampton Road has helped fill 41 new homes built largely through Habitat's volunteers.

Leading Chesapeake's Habitat for Humanity effort is Dr. Rebecca C.W. Adams, a principal at Great Bridge Intermediate School. Adams coordinates the Chesapeake Habitat Interfaith Partners, a coalition of six Great Bridge-area churches.

``But what I think sets us apart from some other groups is our efforts at homeowner education,'' she said. ``And for the first year in the home, the family has a support person from Habitat to answer questions about budgeting, maintenance, taxes and insurance.''

But Gene Cuffee is only at the beginning: His family must put 400 hours of labor, or ``sweat equity,'' into the home's completion. Payments on a Habitat home, at a cost of $49,000, will average $200 a month, officials said.

``I don't drink. I don't smoke. I believe I can do it now, and the Lord is with me,'' Cuffee said. ``I'm done being wild. This will give my children the right attitude to live their lives right.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MORT FRYMAN/The Virginian-Pilot

The Cuffees - including Gene, left, Beulah, right, and their

daughter LaTonya, center - hope to own a home with Habitat for

Humanity's help.

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