OXFORD, Miss. – It’s a sight you don’t see everyday: An
entire house – not a mobile home, but an actual house –
perched on the back of an 18-wheeler, calmly coasting down
the street. It gives new meaning to the phrase “moving
day.”
But as the University of Mississippi prepares to erect new
residential colleges on the northern boundaries of the
Oxford campus, the little white houses from Faculty Row and
Sorority Row are seen moving on. It’s part of the
university’s plan, with the help of city and community
leaders, to help these old houses find – and become – new
homes for low-income families.
“From day one, we didn’t want to have to bulldoze a faculty
house,” said University Architect Ian Banner. “We’ve always
wanted to find a way to preserve these homes. It’s the
right thing to do, giving people the chance to occupy them
on a different site. Donating them through LOU-HOME was a
perfect opportunity.”
That site has been named Community Green, and the homes
will line a new road called Victory Hill Lane. A project of
LOU-HOME Inc., the development is just off Molly Barr Road,
near the airport, on land donated by the city of Oxford.
The community is rapidly taking shape as house movers place
the Faculty Row homes onto new foundations.
“Now that we’ve made it this far, there’s a combination of
relief, satisfaction and hope,” said Fred Laurenzo,
president of LOU-HOME, a nonprofit corporation.
In this phase, 12 houses have been relocated to the new
site and renovations on them should be complete by summer.
Nine more houses on Faculty Row remain to be moved, but
Laurenzo expects that to be finished by summer as well.
In the meantime, LOU-HOME expects to begin accepting
applications for Community Green this spring, with the
average home priced at about $98,500, Laurenzo said.
“In Oxford, for an average-size home with three bedrooms
and two baths, that’s very affordable,” Laurenzo said.
“They’ll appraise for more than we’re selling them for.”
LOU-HOME is working with area banks to arrange financing
for the buyers, Laurenzo said. Applicants will have to meet
certain financial requirements based on factors including
income, family size and existing debt.
This is not the first time UM has partnered with LOU-HOME
in such an arrangement. In 2006, when UM wanted to start
construction on the new tower at the Inn at Ole Miss,
LOU-HOME helped get five homes moved onto different sites
in Lafayette County.
One of those recipients was Ocie Cook, who moved into a
three-bedroom, two-bath former faculty home relocated to
Abbeville last October. When she lived in an apartment, she
developed a habit of tiptoeing around, so as not to disturb
her neighbors. She doesn’t have neighbors underneath her
anymore, but moving quietly has proven to be a hard habit
to break.
“Now I have to remind myself that I don’t have to do that
anymore,” Cook said at a Wednesday Brown Bag Luncheon
featuring LOU-HOME. “It’s so quiet and peaceful where I
live now. I’m a country girl and I love being out in the
country. I love it.”
Cook’s success story, along with those of the other four
homes, did not go unnoticed when UM started to move forward
with the residential colleges.
“Several people took notice of that,” said Jim Windham,
director of procurement services. “There just weren’t any
really good housing options for lower-income families. We
were sure that LOU-HOME would be interested.”
For LOU-HOME, the current project is much more ambitious.
Not only is the group moving 21 houses, they also had to
overcome numerous obstacles just to get this far, including
raising the funds for the house movers and recruiting
construction companies. The weather hasn’t always
cooperated, either.
However, generosity has been the hallmark of this project,
with construction companies providing labor at virtually no
cost and an engineer donating his expertise. Throughout the
ups and downs, a vision for affordable housing in Oxford is
starting to come into focus, thanks to the efforts of the
university, the city and LOU-HOME.
“We expect to help a good many people below the median
income level for Lafayette County,” Laurenzo said. “But
we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”