Photo by Sarah Merly
Key Points
- Apopka completed its third and fourth Community Development Block Grant homes with ribbon cuttings on Eighth Street.
- The city received a $750,000 CDBG grant in 2021 and contributed $250,000 to rebuild three homes and renovate two for low-income residents.
- Residents Jose Sanchez, Damaris Fonseca, and Marilyn Perkins celebrated moving into their newly rebuilt or renovated homes with involvement from local contractors.
The city of Apopka hosted two ribbon-cutting ceremonies Friday afternoon on Eighth Street to celebrate the completion of Apopka’s third and fourth Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) homes.
“We’re just so excited to be here and be a part of this celebration,” said Mayor Bryan Nelson at the 28 W. Eighth St. ribbon cutting.
According to Mayor Bryan Nelson, the city received a CDBG grant of $750,000 in 2021 and contributed $250,000, creating a total of $1 million. The grant was designed to fund the rebuilding of three homes and renovations for two others for lower-income Apopka residents.
The 28 W. Eighth St. residence, where Jose Sanchez and Damaris Fonseca live, is the third and final house to be completely rebuilt, this time due to an excess of asbestos.
“They took two years to do all the fixing to the house, so then I moved in March, I came back to my house,” Fonseca said. “I’m so happy, because I never thought — that gift from God. It’s a beautiful house.”
Contractor Julion Bell of J.M. Bell Construction said the process ran smoothly, with the house’s solar panels proving the most difficult part of the reconstruction. He also called Sanchez and Fonseca his “best friends” and involved their input throughout.
“It’s been very rewarding just watching their faces through the process,” Bell said. “When we framed the house, we brought them in, and they came and signed the names on the frame and put little messages around the house, so that was so cool.”
The second Friday ribbon cutting, held a few blocks away at 407 E. Eighth St., celebrated the newly renovated home of Marilyn Perkins.
“Meeting Ms. Perkins was a wonderful thing,” said contractor Eugene Roberson of RDC Development Corporation. “She seemed very excited, especially when we turned the house over to her.”
Perkins had applied for the grant in 2022.
“I was an alternate, and then they finally got enough money to push me through,” Perkins said. “About a year ago, I think, I started signing my paperwork. They started in January.”
Perkins enjoys her new hardwood floors, larger master bedroom, and her other new features, saying the house was her New Year’s testimony at church.
“For New Year’s, at Watch Night, you could give a testimony, and this was my testimony,” Perkins said. “The money had finally come through for me…I’m just truly, truly grateful.”