New McKees Rocks homeowner Chantel Perkins brought a photo of her late grandmother to the closing of her first home purchase. Her new home on Woodward Avenue is one of five blighted properties on Woodward that Homes by LEVEL recently stripped down to the studs and rebuilt.

A seat at the table for Grandma

By Sonja Reis, Communications and Marketing Director, MRCDC

Chantel Perkins didn’t come to her closing alone.

Several family members joined her at the McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation office on Friday, Oct. 2, to watch her become a first-time homebuyer. And Chantel made sure one more guest had a seat at the table. She brought along a framed picture of her grandmother.

As a reporter and through my work in community development, I’ve been to more ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings than I can count. Gold shovels. Big scissors. Bigger speeches.

This was different. No podium, no ceremony. Just a table, a pen and a stack of papers taller than anyone wants to sign. And a woman about to become a homeowner, with family there to witness the moment.

Then she signed the last page of her Dollar Bank mortgage, and the Woodward Avenue home became Chantel’s.

Three days later, it happened again. On Monday, Oct. 5, Melissa Williams-Miles closed on her new home also on Woodward, just up the street from Chantel.

Two closings. One street. One weekend apart. Not a bad week for The Rocks.

Woodward wasn’t always like this. Not long ago, both houses sat empty and blighted. Homes by LEVEL changed that, gutting them and rebuilding them from top to bottom. They’re two of five homes LEVEL has brought back to life on the street.

As a community partner, LEVEL does its McKees Rocks work out of The HUB, 421 Chartiers Ave., also home to the McKees Rocks CDC.

For Chantel, the road to one of those houses wasn’t easy. “There were moments where I felt like this journey was impossible,” she told the crowd at LEVEL’s celebration on Woodward back in August, according to the New Pittsburgh Courier.

Not anymore.

So what is a house, really? Four walls, a roof, a mortgage payment due on the first of the month. For Chantel, it’s more than that. It’s what she called that day “the beginning of a legacy that continues for generations.”

I hope Grandma’s picture gets a place of honor in the new house. Seems only right.

Welcome to McKees Rocks, Chantel. Congratulations and welcome back, Melissa. We’re so glad to call you both neighbors.

Interested in becoming a first-time homeowner through LEVEL? Email: hello@homesbylevel.org.