For the past five years, going on six, organizations in Dutchtown have sought to turn renters into homeowners in one of the city’s few remaining pockets of true affordability.
The annual Go South Side! event introduces them to not just the neighborhoods covered by the Dutchtown South Community Corporation—Marine Villa, Gravois Park, Mt. Pleasant, and Benton Park West—but also resources for first-time home buyers and introductions to bankers that want to lend to them. It’s been such a success that the corporation’s executive director Karisa Gilman-Hernandez says she can think of three or four people off the top of her head who’ve gone from attending to buying houses in the neighborhood.
Dutchtown Main Streets volunteer Nick Findley says much the same. “This is one of my favorite events,” he says. “We’ve had people walk in just curious, and a few months later they own a home. So it’s been really cool to see the success stories.”…