'A real blessing': Community Homes adds tenants, talks next steps on Canal St. project

Debra Tucker was a former banker turned nurse before breaking her leg years ago. Talking to the Lebanon Daily News from a wheelchair Tuesday, she said lost that leg after she was diagnosed with cancer and had to retire from nursing.

"My apartment that I was living in went up in two years to over $1,000," she said. "I live on disability, and it's enough for me ... but with the expense of the rent and all, I wouldn't be able to do it. I'd probably have to go to one of the ministries for housing."

Tucker was not able to afford a proper house for over 25 years since she was divorced. Tucker was living in a trailer near Canal Street when members of Calvary Chapel spoke to her a few years ago about a new development community groups were working on.

In March, Tucker was able to finally move into a brand new affordable unit able to address her handicap needs.

"If you are down and out, usually you can work hard and pick yourself up and get going again," she said. "But with a disability or restrictions of any kind, you can't do that. You have to have some help sometimes. This is a real blessing for me."

Tucker was among the eight residents displaying their new Canal Street affordable housing units to residents and government officials Tuesday. The units are part of a Community Homes of Lebanon County project organizers started six years ago to create a 23-unit complex of handicap friendly housing units on the 2.38-acre parcel in North Lebanon Township.

Tucker said if the community had not stepped in with this new project, she might not have a place to live right now.

"If I didn't have this, I would probably be homeless," Tucker said.

Community Homes broke ground on its Canal Street property in January 2023 , with phase one creating eight handicap accessible units. Organizers have invested almost $2 million on the project so far, creating roadways and utility work to add another 15 units in the future with phases two and three.

"This is the first time that Community Homes has be able to serve younger folks with family," board chairman Glenn Wenger said. "Our other 300 units in the county were primarily elderly housing. So this has broaden our portfolio and allows us to service more people."

The project, located at the intersection of North 7th Ave. and East Canal Street, is intended to serve the county's disabled and severely disadvantaged communities who are struggling to find a place to stay.

"There's a great support system here," Tucker said. "The people that run Community Homes, every one of them is nice. We talk to the gardeners as well as the people in the office."

As a part of their transition into helping a broader range of the community, those staying in the Canal Street project will be offered empowerment initiatives like case management, counseling, financial literacy, and employment and life skills training. Those services are provided with help from Calvary Chapel and Lebanon Rescue Mission.

"You have something that happens to ya, or your born with something or something happens to your income, and you can't pick yourself up right quick," Tucker said. "All of us here needed help."

Stories like Tucker's are not uncommon to Community Homes staff. Wenger said another tenant would crash on friend's sofas most nights rather than have a place to live.

"On national news you see San Francisco with the tent cities," he said. "You don't see that here, but you have people that don't have a permanent place to call home. So they make due with friends and family, but it's not a very good lifestyle."

Wenger added that there is a significant shortage of handicapped accessible housing in Lebanon County, and the wait list for their existing units is way too high.

"If you're on that list and need accessible housing, you're looking at two decades worth of a list to get there," he said. "But our other list has hundreds of people on, and it still takes a couple years for somebody to get in other facilities."

Community Homes estimates the total cost of this project with 23 units to cost around $4 million. Organizers are attempting to raise another million dollars while applying for various grants to continue with construction of the other 15 units.

"We're going to do a capital campaign that will raise the money for phase two and three at the same time," Wenger said. "So it's really two part of what we are doing here today. One is celebration and the other is putting the shovel in the ground and getting ready to do the hard work for phases two and three."

Finishing the other 15 units would take an estimated two years to complete, according to Wenger.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on X at @DAMattToth .

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: 'A real blessing': Community Homes adds tenants, talks next steps on Canal St. project