O ccasionally, the topic of rent versus own comes up in Pine Bluff, or rather the percent of residents who rent their homes as opposed to those who own or are buying them.
Do an online search and one finds that close to half (47%) of the people here are renters. If that seems high, it apparently is. In Arkansas, some 31% of households rent their homes.
Not that it was telling us anything we didn’t know, but one online site said: a “higher proportion of owner-occupied homes generally indicates a more stable and potentially higher-value community compared to neighborhoods with a large number of rented homes.”
In things small and large, a person who owns a home is more likely to take better care of it than a landlord or a renter. A board begins to rot, a big limb falls across a shed, a window is broken, a pipe leaks. If a homeowner has the wherewithal, they’ll try to tackle those as they happen. Not that all landlords won’t get to those things, but that’s not typically the way it happens on a larger scale. And a renter is likely not that inclined to make repairs to a property that’s not theirs. So the neighborhood filled with rental houses goes down, down, down, and becomes the new home of bad behavior.
Enter Matt Mosler. Initially, a television weather forecaster, he’s now a pastor where — of course — he’s in the business of saving souls, but he’s also in the business of saving neighborhoods and maybe a town.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
As the founder of Home Again, Mosler was back in front of the cameras this week, telling the audience that the entity was breaking ground on 34 new homes. They will be sold to qualifying buyers, but teachers and others willing to live in the area for three years and who agree to take some life-lesson courses are eligible for a $20,000 grant.
“You get families back together, you take care of crime, you take care of poverty, you take care of homelessness (and) education,” Mosler said. “You get people back to work and restore hope in the community.”
The way Home Again works is that it partners with civic and church supporters to make all this happen.
“My house is going to increase value, but everything you do to your house is going to increase value,” he said. “So now, I’m taking care of my street and my community because it benefits me.”
There is a theme in what Mosler sets out to do. Next week, his church will fry turkeys in their parking lot for those who want to drop one off. But nothing is free, for a reason. The person dropping off a bird has to bring two, leaving one for the less fortunate, thereby introducing their own skin in the game for the betterment of the community. Turkeys, houses, if they’re yours, you are more interested in their outcomes, so says Mosler.
The estimation of completion for these homes is between two and four years, some of which will be determined in how much money is needed and the number of people who volunteer to make all this happen.
Home Again has only been around for a handful of years. It started small but it now seems to be picking up speed. Mosler appears to be onto something — something that, little by little, is making Pine Bluff better. Godspeed, Mr. Mosler. May the weather be all blue skies for your project.