By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
Sarah Lewis is ready to party – in her own home.
“July 16th is the one-year anniversary,” Lewis, an English teacher at Dixie Heights High School told the Northern Kentucky Tribune. “I purchased the home on that date; but been living in it since the Fall of 2023.”
Thanks to HONK – Housing Opportunities for Northern Kentucky – a faith-based, non-profit organization with a mission to help low income families and individuals reach the goal of stable homeownership through programs of education and support. HONK has helped 105 households in Northern Kentucky to become homeowners.
Sarah Lewis is one of them.
“I was a single mom, with two daughters, and it was financially difficult to live on my own,” she said. “My dream was always to own my own home, have my own space for myself and my daughters.”
And, she always loved vintage old homes.
“I felt discouraged, time and again,” she said, “I feared I would never be a home owner.”
Enter HONK – well she tried.
“I googled several organizations that might be of help,” she said, “and, HONK popped up. I thought it was a scam.”
Not after she noticed the videos on the site.
It was Gina Slavey, a HONK Housing Counselor, who held Lewis’s hand through the process – which was a long one.
“Gina helped me,and showed me how to live a single life,” Lewis said. “She helped me build my credit; and eventually purchase a home.”
The process, claims Lewis, took about six months.
Oh, and what about that vintage home? Get this.
“When I first pulled up to it – it looked like Anne Green Gables house,” claims Lewis, a self-proclaimed English geek. “I felt a strong connection to the history of the house; and it felt like home when I walked through it.”
History? Talk about history of the home in Erlanger. It is the site of one of the first schools in the region to formally educate African American children not long after the end of slavery.
The three-bedroom, 2.5 bath home was rehabbed by HONK; but it was known as The Dunbar School, which was started in the late 1800s by leaders of the African American community in the Erlanger/Elsmere area.
Among those leaders were two formerly enslaved people – Thomas and Fannie Green, and a deacon of a local church, Mat Slaughter.
Today, the now Sarah Lewis Home, is two-stories tall, has a front porch, and looks like, well, a house.
Prior to the HONK rehab, the same family had owned the home the past 70 years. They were the same family that added a second story, dug out the basement by hand, and otherwise converted the one-room schoolhouse into a four bedroom home in the 1950s.
Significant upgrades have been added to this home, thanks to the generosity of a local family. These include adding an extra bathroom on the second floor, upgraded kitchen cabinets, granite countertops, with a tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances, luxury vinyl tile, and an open floor plan, upgraded windows an extra parking pad, and a backyard patio.
Just for Sarah Lewis and her daughters to call home.
HONK uses a 12-18 month lease-to-own program – which Lewis used – to help people achieve homeownership. HONK works with each household to improve credit, reduce debt, develop savings and otherwise prepare for home ownership while living in the home they are working to purchase.
HONK families typically experience all four seasons in their home before buying, so they are familiar with the utility costs and maintenance expectations of their home before purchasing.
And sometimes the perfect match is made – like a school teacher owning a former schoolhouse.