What motivated a father and daughter to turn a blighted building into affordable housing

Marva Hammond and her father, Charlie Falletta, saw something useful in the derelict dwelling at 518 S. Heald St. in Wilmington's Southbridge neighborhood.

According to some, the building had been set afire during the unrest following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968. The structure housed several businesses in the time since, but the last one was vacated in 2010. By the time the father-daughter duo formed the nonprofit Southbridge Community Services Inc. and bought the property in 2020, it had become an eyesore.

There wasn't much of a roof on the building. Inside piles of brick littered the floors. The interior walls had fallen. Hammond said it would've been cheaper to knock the structure down, but it meant something to the community.

Driven by compassion for others, Hammond, a Delaware State Housing Authority employee who manages the state agency's rental assistance program, and Falletta, an entrepreneur, saw the need for affordable housing in Delaware. "And we have the resources to do something about it," Falletta said.

So they did. Hammond and Falletta worked to rehab the property and make it fit for occupancy.

The old decrepit building is now the Southbridge Community Services building — and in a few weeks its first tenants from a homeless shelter will move into their brand-new efficiency apartment homes.

Affordable housing for homeless seniors, veterans

At just under 13,000 square feet, the Southbridge Community Services building was developed for mixed retail and residential use. Hammond and Falletta are very intentional about who they'd like to see as tenants.

The majority of the space will be used for affordable, permanent housing.

Heartbroken by the stories she hears at her day job, Hammond said she was driven to create this opportunity for those who are homeless. "I have firsthand knowledge of having conversations with individuals that are literally living in their cars or couch surfing, or transitioning into shelter-like living because they're doing the best that they can, and they can't afford the rent."

The developers collaborated with the New Castle County Hope Center, a temporary emergency shelter, to identify tenants. "We specifically are trying to get older people, particularly veterans," Falletta said. They expect that leases will be signed soon and people will move in beginning in June.

Recognizing the dire lack of affordable housing in the state, Hammond and Falletta are seeking to add an additional eight to 10 apartments.

More: Amid affordable housing crisis, this Delaware nonprofit is getting hit with $700K cut

More: Why new affordable housing in Delaware is rented out well before the ribbon is cut

Investing in a community that wants to invest in itself

Roughly 25% of the space will be available for commercial operations that will also align with the developers' vision. "I'm really interested in finding a tenant [that will] be a value-add to the community and to the city of Wilmington," Hammond said.

Southbridge sits on the Route 9 corridor, a densely populated collection of neighborhoods built on top of marshland and surrounded by heavy manufacturing and chemical-producing plants. Many residents believe investments are being made close to where they live, but not in their community itself.

With no traditional bank within miles, Southbridge is in a banking desert.

Hammond said they hope to use a portion of Southbridge Community Services building's commercial space to fulfill the community's wishes for a brick-and-mortar bank. After establishing its own Banking Desert Initiative, Del-One Federal Credit Union's plans to open a branch in the defunct Elbert Palmer Elementary School failed to materialize. Hammond said she has reached out to the credit union about a possible tenancy.

A former employee of First State Community Action Agency, Hammond said they also hope to fill the remaining commercial area with a community action agency, a federal program established by The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 designed to provide services to alleviate poverty.

Don't have to be from the community to be for it

Hammond said she doesn't have any ties to Southbridge, outside of working in the community as a housing counselor. She describes the effort to develop affordable housing as "a labor of love and doing what's right."

"We didn't go into this to make money. We went into this to make a difference," Hammond said.

According to the agency's director, Eugene R. Young, Jr., Hammond worked on this development project with her father and son outside of her work hours and with no financial backing from Delaware State Housing Authority programs.

And although the state employee works in the housing space, Hammond said she knew little about being a land developer. She received training from Jumpstart Wilmington, a program that supports the growth of women and people of color who want to enter the real estate development field.

Hammond wants real estate developers to consider their value system and see what they can do to implement changes that the community would welcome. She urged developers to have conversations with the community they are investing in to find out how they can give back to that community. "Whether it's employing people with barriers who are from the community or building affordable housing, there's a lot that can be done," Hammond said.

Contact reporter Anitra Johnson at ajohnson@delawareonline.com with tips and story ideas. Become a subscriber to access more stories and the best in local reporting.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Father, daughter create affordable housing in Wilmington DE