FCBA Day 16- Shreveport LA workday

 

Though the Fuller Center for Housing home is Americus Georgia, the Fuller Center for Housing of NW Louisiana was the first project Millard Fuller started after leaving Habitat for Humanity. Hurricane Katrina displaced tens of thousands of New Orleans residents to Shreveport, many of whom found themselves in already distressed communities such as Allendale. Allendale was the result of 1960’s urban housing projects that typically failed due to numerous social factors exacerbated by concentrating those living in poverty. Allendale was a very sick place in 2005.

Millard Fuller partnered with community leaders and businesses to reform the neighborhood. Today this is a thriving community of over 100 owner occupied homes that is a prime example of how providing decent housing through partnership with potential owners along with comprehensive nurturing can change what seemed a hopeless situation. What was once a slum rife with the worst imaginable criminal activity is now safe for decent people to thrive, and outsiders to visit, as demonstrated by my curious wanderings through it when our group arrived. It may not be apparent to recent acquaintances but this middle-aged Caucasian has some experience in unsavory neighborhoods, so I am somewhat aware of criminal indicators, and here I see none, even when walking through at 11pm. This is a community well into recovery, but recovery is always fragile. Paint and plaster cure nothing; it takes inspiration and leadership provided by such a man as Lee A. Jeter, Sr. and his assistants.

Lee is around my age, a mountain of a man with a fire within that ignites everyone he touches with his crushing handshake. Lee comes from this area of Louisiana and after serving in the Marines really hadn’t intended in making this his home or doing this work. He was “blessed” with a calling from a Higher Power he couldn’t deny- being blessed so isn’t easy, though. He works tirelessly every day with the help of his family, assistants James and Hannah and volunteers to attend to the minutest needs of this place. It isn’t charity, though- the Fuller Center isn’t giving anything away. These houses are built by the owners with volunteer help, and then paid for with interest-free mortgages. The owners are candidates that must undergo financial and social counseling to qualify, and if they falter, must participate in remedial programs to help them succeed. Their repayment on mortgages is 85%, which is above average (Millard Fuller said “If 100% of our mortgages are repaid then we are putting the wrong people into our houses.) This isn’t a standard business by any means, but a program built on sound business and Christian principles.

I’m on fire! There isn’t a grocery store for 5 miles, and that is a project in the works. They have the building where an experienced grocery store manager will live for free and operate the store below, being paid a stipend. Nobody gets rich in this work; staff members of the Fuller Center for Housing live at below poverty level by being provided free housing along with a stipend. They embrace the principles of Millard Fuller that require selflessness fitting a Saint. The rewards are very real, though, and I find myself wishing I had the experience to manage a grocery. I want to live in Allendale. I’m not good enough, but the Fuller Center is rebuilding me.