10/30/09: “H.O.M.E.” Breaks Ground on New Home for 2010

BY NICKI MAYO
A Western New York group dedicated to helping others find homes is breaking ground on a new home of its own. The Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) program has worked to curb housing discrimination since 1963. The organization is currently housed at Main and Tupper, but plans to move to Main and Ferry by September 2010. Neighbors say the vacant building has gone unattended for at least four years.
“Main Street has always been the divide in the City of Buffalo,” said City Common Councilman Michael LoCurto. “This is a project that can help bridge that gap,” the Delaware District representative added.
The $2.4million project links the Delaware and Masten District corridors while providing a permanent home for HOME.
“We have the Performing Arts Revitalization, the Michigan Street Revitalization, the Main Street revitalization coming back up this way [pointing toward Ferry Street] as well as all the other projects on Main Street,” said Buffalo Common Councilman Demone Smith. “What we now have is this investment at HOME becoming a median between all these investments,” added the Masten district representative.
The HOME fair housing civil rights group will operate out of the bottom floor while the two upper floors will have ten affordable housing apartments. Former Buffalo Bills player Ernie Warlick says he encountered housing discrimination in the suburbs when he first moved to Buffalo back in 1962. He says HOME volunteers helped his family settle around the Queen City.
“They had gotten wind that some of the neighbors were complaining about a Black guy that was moving in.” Warlick said. “Some members of HOME and other friends, all white, took turns driving by the house at night to make sure that nothing happened,” he added.
HOME organizers say the new building is a green mixed-use energy efficient project. The new home for home is slated to open its doors for business September 2010.