- Video shows Highlander housing including Burdette and Wade, Davis Ridge, Malcom's Place and MLK Square.
- Francesca Patterson, a former Spencer Homes resident now lives in a redeveloped area in North Omaha. She shares the importance of having access to affordable housing and feeling safe at home.
- Rich Sciortino, co-founder of Brinshore Development says creating new housing leads to an overall better environment.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The community has finally come up with a name for the new housing replacing the Spencer Homes and their calling it Malcom's Place and MLK Square.
I'm Melissa Wright, your North Omaha neighborhood reporter, where I told you weeks ago, why the naming of the Spencer Homes is so important to the neighborhood.
"Once I seen the place… I fell in love with it, and to the point my kids…they was excited," said Francesca Patterson.
Francesca Patterson, born and raised in North Omaha is a former Spencer Homes resident.
"A lot of stuff that happened… to the point where a lot of people that got killed down there. People was just being like loud…like being really destructive," said Patterson.
Patterson lives in a redeveloped area and says feeling at home is important.
"Feel safe because you want to come home and you want to feel safe. You don't want to come home and feel disturb or out of the range… you want to come home and feel comfortable and secure," said Patterson.
In 2019 the developer and partners received a 25 million dollar grant from HUD and received an additional 157 million dollars from Omaha foundations.
"By bring together a variety of of different income groups it will bring a different synergy to the whole site and enable folks to work together," said
Rich Sciortino, co-founder of Brinshore Development has partnered with multiple Omaha organizations to bring affordable and market rate housing to North Omaha. He says bringing housing to the area helps to create a better all around environment.
"Getting services to these communities and the schools get better and so its not safety, I think safety comes along with all those other things but certainly that is an elemental reason why these types of developments are so effective," said Sciortino.
The housing that is being recognized today is expected to be complete by 2025. At the Highlander, I'm Melissa Wright, your North Omaha neighborhood reporter.
