Enright Court’s 99 townhomes are a final frontier for ELDI’s development efforts, and an opportunity to turn renting residents into homeowners.
by Rich Lord
The Devines are only moving one block. But for Jasmine and her three daughters, the impending relocation within a little square called Enright Court is a big jump, and not just because they’ll have a fourth bedroom, plus a bigger yard.
They’ll finally own a townhouse, rather than renting. With that, they’ll be gaining some control over their destinies in East Liberty, a neighborhood where demolitions and rising rents have torn many families out by the roots.
“I’m building a legacy for them,” said Devine, 32, as she stood in her current driveway with her eldest daughter, Jah’Niya, 13. “All she’s worried about is, like, decorating her room.”
“I want, like, a lot of teenage stuff, like luxury stuff,” Jah’Niya confessed. “I want a mirror with lights around it.” Her sisters, ages 6 and 3, want purple or pink bedroom walls.
The family’s plan to buy a townhouse, paint walls and put up mirrors is a counterpoint to a 20-year trend in East Liberty, which has seen a loss of around one-quarter of its nonwhite population since 2000. The move is being facilitated by East Liberty Development Inc. [ELDI], a nonprofit that has been central to the neighborhood’s stunning – though controversial – transformation.
Today ELDI is in the midst of a systematic, and labor-intensive, bid to return Enright Court to its roots as a bastion of homeownership. The organization views its efforts in the enclave as one of the final — and urgent — pieces in the redevelopment of East Liberty.
“The cement is drying in East Liberty,” said Ted Melnyk, ELDI’s director of operations, meaning that the real estate market is solidifying. “The market has changed so much that if you don’t get people into affordable housing situations before the cement dries, you’re never going to get them in.”
Jasmine Devine (rear) and her three daughters (from left) Nylah (6), Erionna (3) and Jah’Niya (13) stand in front of the townhouse they now rent in East Liberty’s Enright Court. (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)
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An East Liberty enclave faces change, but this time residents can set down roots
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