FAIRFAX – After what seemed like an eternity, Allendale County ALIVE recently celebrated the rehabilitation of the last two of five houses in the Aiken and Laurens Avenue area of Fairfax. The event represented completion of the first phase. Nine other houses in the area, which were originally built in the early 1950s to house employees at the Savannah River Site, are also slated for improvements.

Wilbur Cave, ALIVE executive director, said the enterprise community organization, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, originally purchased 14 houses located on the city block off Boundary Street.

“These houses had passed through a number of hands in recent years,” Cave said. “Allendale County ALIVE purchased the structures with approximately $60,000 in USDA Rural Development funds. We were able to secure funding from the S.C. State Housing and Finance Development Authority for the actual rehabilitation and marry that with YouthBuild, which was originally a U.S. Housing and Urban Development program that’s now overseen by the Labor Department.”

In YouthBuild programs, low-income young people ages 16-24 work toward their GED or high school diploma, learn job skills and serve their communities by building affordable housing while transforming their own lives and roles in society. Allendale County ALIVE has funded YouthBuild through two $400,000 grants, one in 2004 and one in 2006, that includes stipends for participants, transportation to work and school and other costs such as paying the housing rehabilitation construction manager and contractor.

“There has been interest in this group of 14 houses in Fairfax for five years,” Cave said. “One of the two past owners tried to convince us to buy the houses. But, at that time, we weren’t in a position to do so. Over two years ago he approached us again, and we had some contractors look at them. They told us it was cheaper to rehab them than to demolish them, especially since we used YouthBuild labor to do virtually all the work. By doing that, we were able to save an average of $40,000 cost on each house.”

Cave said doing the work this way slowed down progress because the skills needed to rebuild the first five houses had to be taught to the 30 YouthBuild workers.

“It probably took about two years to do Phase I from start to finish because we had to work slowly to make sure it was done right,” Cave said. “We’re also on our third contractor since the work began, plus we had three months of delays when we ran into issues with local building inspectors. Kids would also get their diplomas, get jobs and go on to college, which made turnover an issue. But these successes met the goals of the YouthBuild program.”

Cave said Phase II has already begun on four more houses, which he hopes will be completed by the end of the year when the grant money for the YouthBuild program runs out. The final five houses will be done conventionally after additional funding is secured, he said.

Two Fairfax officials noted the project is a plus for this southeastern Allendale County town.

Fairfax Mayor Moses L. Cohen said, “These rehabilitated homes will enhance our community because it has a positive effect all the way through. It will really give some people who haven’t had a decent house before a good place to stay.”

Annie Manuel, a Fairfax councilwoman who attended the celebration, said, “We don’t have many homes here that are capable of allowing people to move without more work having to be done. These houses are real nice, and it gives people a choice. I would like to see more of the dilapidated homes in Fairfax restored and the town cleaned up.”

n T&D Staff Writer Phil Sarata can be reached by e-mail at psarata@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5540. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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