Vermont Housing Conservation Board 2005 - Vermont Housing and ...

portation,” said Brenda Torpy, director
of Burlington Community Land Trust
(BCLT). Purchase prices ranged from
115,500 for a 670 square-foot home to
165,900 for a 1,110 square-foot, marketrate
home.
For one family that became homeowners
for the first time here, City’s Edge
became the end point of an exceptionally
long journey. Walum Awotho and
Lossi Budju are natives of the Congo;
they moved to Madagascar several years
ago so that Walum could attend medical
school. While he was studying, war
erupted in the Congo, and the couple
could not return home.
Applying for refugee status, the
couple and their children were sent to
the United States. In 2002 they moved
to Barre, then relocated to Burlington as
Walum searched for work, and found it.
In a cramped Essex Junction apartment,
the family saw much of their income
going for rent. Searching for reliable
information on buying a home, Walum
discovered the BCLT NeighborWorks®
HomeOwnership Center.
“Walum and Lossi attended an orientation
and a home buyer workshop,
and studied the workbook provided
by BCLT using both an English and a
French dictionary,” says Karolyn Phillips,
an AmeriCorps member who
served as the HomeOwnership Center’s
education and outreach coordinator.
“They saved money and worked hard for
two years, to rebuild their lives from the
ground up . . . Now they are homeowners,
and tell friends about BCLT.”
“It is easy if you have good credit
history, are honest, and pay bills,” says
Walum. “BCLT is helpful — and a very,
very good thing.”
“Walum and Lossi
attended an orientation
and a home buyer
workshop, and studied
the workbook provided
by BCLT. . . They saved
money and worked
hard for two years, to
rebuild their lives from
the ground up . . . Now
they are homeowners,
and tell friends about
BCLT.”
— Karolyn Phillips,
AmeriCorps Member with the
Burlington NeighborWorks ®
HomeOwnership Center
When the NeighborWorks ®
Homeownership Center in Burlington
marketed City's Edge last year, 31
affordable condominiums in the 60-
unit development sold within weeks
of coming on the market. The fi rst
resale showed that the homes had
increased in value by more than
$30,000 in less than 60 days.
City's Edge is adjacent to O'Dell
Apartments, a 160-unit development
with 130 affordable homes off the
Shelburne Road completed in 2003.
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