Home for sale highlights progress made in restoring East Hills neighborhood

It was a celebratory day in the East Hills on Friday morning. Complaints about water damage and collapsing roofs are starting to turn into renovated homes.

Rising Tide Partners has turned some of the abandoned properties into rentals, but on Friday, it cut the ribbon on the first for-sale home with the community.

Dr. Patricia Saunders-Madison, the vice president of the HOA involved, heard the complaints from people in this neighborhood over the years.

"It was a good house in the middle – and two abandoned on each end – so a lot of the water coming through the roof was coming into their homes," Saunders-Madison said.

In came Rising Tide Partners, and Kendall Pelling, its executive director.

"They needed that real estate capacity. They needed somebody who would come and take risks with them," he said.

The first of those for-sale homes was revealed Friday. The house includes a renovated kitchen, a bathroom and even a deck. 

"I'm happy that we're here today," Dr. Saunders-Madison said.

Pelling says 84 of the 167 properties in this HOA are abandoned.

"Now we control them and the community controls their destiny instead of an absentee investor controlling their destiny," he said.

Rising Tide has turned some of these into rentals. He says they want to get them all to good owners and keep them at a low cost.

"A homebuyer can have a monthly mortgage payment of $650 to $700 a month," Pelling said.

Part of the next steps include making lot improvements, like to sidewalks and the parking area. Pelling said those projects will be up for bidding this summer.

The hope is for the home that was renovated for sale to be available by the end of the summer as well.

Pelling also said that Rising Tide applied for a low-income housing tax credit from the state for funding to allow for continued renovations and help.

Dr. Saunders-Madison remembers how this place used to be. She also knows that the work is not over, but she and others are pleased with what's become of it.

"We're not there yet. We're not there yet – but it's coming, it's coming along," she said.