Growing homeo Plant A Home program strengthens town, families with low-cost property
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allowing them to invest more of their money into a home, and it puts the soon-to-be improved property back on town tax rolls and relieves the town of upkeep costs.
The Plant a Home program offers vacant parcels of townowned land for sale at a low cost to generate a win-win for Ayden and potential homeowners who qualify.
Currently, six lots are available. The town acquired several after previous owners failed to maintain them, a byproduct of ongoing revitalization efforts. Other lots were donated and the town continues to seek donations.
The program helps buyers obtain land below tax value,
“I saw an opportunity to elevate living standards while
By Donna Williams
he town of Ayden is striving to build its community by planting seeds of hope in those who thought home ownership was not possible.
turning vacant property expenses into town revenue,” said Ayden Mayor Pro-tem Ivory Mewborn, who helped get Plant A Home started. “The goal is to increase community hope by planting beautiful homes as flowers where dilapidated house once sat.” Mewborn said the idea came in a vision from God. He saw a single mother feed her children breakfast on a Saturday morning then hug and kiss them before heading out to work. Her children pleaded with her to stay home and watch cartoons with them, but the mother responded she couldn’t and held up a rent receipt. She told the children that at the end of 30 days, that rent slip would be all that she had.
Ayden Mayor Pro-Tempore Ivory Mewb
“It started my brain turning. Ten to 15 years from now, that’s all she is going to have,” Mewborn said. “Why not reach out to people like that and give them an opportunity to own their own home?” The lots are located across town on Martin Luther King Boulevard, Lee, First and Sixth streets.
Mewborn, left, applauds Tyrone and Jamie Taft after their purchase through Ayden’s Plant A Home program.
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Applicants must pass background, credit and criminal history checks and their revenue may not exceed 20 percent of the area’s median income. The lot also
SUMMER/FALL 2021
AYDEN MAGAZINE
