Plan to build new homes in aging Suffolk neighborhood met with excitement, concern

SUFFOLK

Malachia Pork glanced at a two-story home with tan siding and bright white porch rails as he walked along his street. M usic poured through an open window.

The 45-year-old smiled . He welcomes new homes and any signs of life in the aging Huntersville community.

For years , there was no progress in the historically black neighborhood, in the heart of booming northern Suffolk. Dead-end streets were filled with rundown homes and overgrown lots.

These days, there are changes.

Those improvements continue Monday, as builders and more than 1,000 other volunteers converge on Huntersville to build 16 houses over six days. The construction is part of Habitat for Humanity International’s Home Builders Blitz to erect 263 homes nationwide.

The Suffolk project – led by Habitat’s South Hampton Roads affiliate – is the largest of the 110 blitz builds in 34 states.

This is the second time the local Habitat affiliate has participated in the Home Builders Blitz. In 2006, volunteers built 10 homes in a week in the Brighton section of Portsmouth.

“You can just feel the excitement growing every day,” said Executive Director John Morgan. “It’s a life-changing experience to go through one of these.”

Foundations and driveways have been poured for 11 two-story houses and five single-story houses.

All but two are located on about 3 acres of cleared land, dubbed Huntersville Place, at the end of Old Townpoint Road. The others are on an adjacent road near another Habitat home built nine years ago.

Pork and other community members say they’re happy, but they have concerns: Why was no one in Huntersville chosen for a Habitat home? Will the new residents want to be a part of the entire neighborhood? Will they join the civic league or participate in community gatherings?

Ultimately, though, he and other longtime Huntersville residents see the project as another sign of rebirth. “The mood overall is excitement,” said Ralph Richardson III, pastor of Little Grove Baptist Church, which is in the center of Huntersville.

Last week, as workers prepared the blitz build sites for construction, Clarence Freeman parked his wheelchair on the side of the road and watched . He’s lived in Huntersville his entire life – almost 75 years.

Freeman said he has mixed feelings about the Habitat homes and other redevelopment. They’re a nice addition to the community, he said, but he fears the poorer residents could be pushed out.

Habitat’s goal is to provide affordable housing to low-income homebuyers. In the process, the organization helps revitalize communities, said Helen Hayes Sommer, senior director of resource development for the local affiliate. Recipients are offered homes at cost with a no-interest mortgage in exchange for volunteering up to 400 hours of their time.

The organization encouraged Huntersville residents to apply for the houses being built during the blitz build, but less than a dozen did so, Hayes Sommer said. Few, if any, of those who applied met credit and income requirements, she said.

Pork welcomes outside people to the neighborhood. The idea of bringing in more diversity is a good thing, he said.

As he walked through Huntersville recently, Pork pointed out carefully manicured lawns, cleared ditches and lots where abandoned homes had been razed. All examples of a growing pride in the community, he said.

“Excited?” Pork said. “I’m so overwhelmed I don’t know what to do.”

Soon, after the Habitat homes are built and the celebrations have ended, Pork and the civic league members plan to have a ceremony of their own. They plan to gather at the entrance to the neighborhood to dedicate a brick sign with the Huntersville name in gold letters.

Hattie Brown Garrow, (757) 222-5562, hattie.brown@pilotonline.com