Reggie Eastwood was in the process of installing new windows in his Ridgeway Avenue home when his sister told him about the city's Front Door Pride program.
The program offers grants up to $5,000 for exterior repairs to homes in the Center City. Eastwood applied, and with the grant he was able to replace all of the windows and put vinyl siding on his home.
While a casual observer might not notice the improvements, Eastwood says he feels like he's living in a new home.
"It makes us want do more," said Eastwood, 42.
Many of the success stories of Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel's program to revitalize Goosetown neighborhoods are difficult to see at a glance, but a closer look at homes such as Eastwood's often reveals new porches, doors and shutters.
To some observers, these improvements may appear minor, but to a homeowner strapped for cash who can't otherwise afford them, they're significant, said Terry Voegel, Front Door Pride specialist for the Department of Metropolitan Development.
"There're a lot of people out there who can't afford" to make improvements to their home, Eastwood said. "Do I pay the gas bill or fix the hole in the roof? There's a lot of people who are faced with those decisions."
Through January, 85 home improvement projects have been completed through Front Door Pride grants. Five were completed in 2007 and the rest last year. Purchase orders for work on an additional 191 projects have been issued.
Launched in 2004, the program has progressed much slower than Weinzapfel had hoped. Only a handful of new homes have been built, and homeowners have been slow to participate in the grant program.
Eastwood, who believes the grants should be extended to homeowners citywide, said some people didn't apply for nonmatching grants because they thought the offer was too good to be true.
The Front Door Pride Neighborhood is bounded by the Lloyd Expressway to the north, U.S. 41 to the east, Veterans Memorial Parkway to the south and Cherry Street to the west.
The Department of Metropolitan Development has mailed nearly 2,300 packets containing information about the grants to homeowners living in the area. Voegel said 449 homeowners responded.
Voegel recently took a reporter on a tour of the Front Door Pride neighborhood to show homes repaired with city grants. Voegel had planned to show only a few homes, but he had trouble passing one he helped fix without mentioning at least a few details about it.
On East Powell Street, he parked his car to show the new porch that was built on Carol Machuca's home. Her gutters also were replaced.
"I'm proud of the way it looks," Voegel said.
Machuca is proud of her home, which she said was the first built in the Bayard Park neighborhood in 1896. Machuca has lived in the home for five years. She said the neighborhood slowly is turning around. Still, there are problems with vacant houses.
The home next door "has been empty for four years and nobody is taking care of it," she said. "I had to call to have land mowed."
Code Enforcement Officer Greg Bryant said the city will be able to more aggressively clean up properties with weed and trash violations, thanks to a more stringent ordinance that was passed by the city council in January.
Bryant acknowledged the Front Door Pride program hasn't moved as quickly as people in the neighborhood had hoped. The death of former DMD Executive Director Gregg LaMar in September 2007 set the program back significantly. But since Tom Barnett took over the department last year, the pace has quickened. More dilapidated, vacant homes that have long been eyesores are being torn down. And more homes are being repaired too.
"It's brought a lot of detractors to the side of being advocates of the program," Bryant said. "We're getting some positive feedback."