Self Help Housing set for groundbreaking in Newton
By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

Newsboy photo/ Sharon Kerr THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK, Dr. Gregory Yawson points to the lot in the Magnolia Place subdivision where they will hold the first Self Help Housing groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow, April 26 at 4 p.m., in Newton.

Self Help Housing of East Texas (SHHET) will hold their first groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow, April 26 at 4 p.m., at Magnolia Place in Newton.

Dr. Gregory Yawson, executive director of the program, has moved quickly since coming to East Texas in February.

How he came to be in Newton is a much longer story. Yawson was born in Ghana, Africa, and grew up in a gold mining area. His father was a carpenter, and Yawson learned drafting from an uncle when he was 11.

Even though he was fascinated by architecture and building, he earned his PhD in analytic chemistry and taught at Wayne State University and Lawrence Tech in Michigan.

"Coming from a poor background, I have been blessed to get an education without spending a lot of money," Yawson said. "I felt it is time to give back to the community."

Yawson has done projects for the United Nations' World Bank, but what he really wanted to do at this stage in his life was to build communities.

"I though that maybe I could use my environmental and chemistry background to re-vitalize my country, one village at a time, and help plan sustainable economic and industrial development."

Yawson believes community development must take a holistic approach. It is not enough to build homes; with the houses must come education, training, new industry and jobs.

At a time when he was seeking spiritual guidance on how to make such a change in his life, he received a call from Newton and felt he was being directed to take on the Self Help Housing project.

SHHET was born of the needs of low-income families who were not insured or under-insured when Hurricane Rita destroyed their homes. It allows families to learn skills to apply toward "sweat equity" in building a new home. Groups of families are taught to do 65 percent of the work on their own new homes.

Magnolia Place is approximately 10 acres at the corner of Magnolia and Jackson Streets in Newton that will be divided into 22 lots. One additional over-size lot is reserved for a community clubhouse and playground.

Yawson says building a subdivision inside the city limits makes sense for several reasons.

"It lowers the costs, removes title problems, and accelerates the rate of approval," Yawson said.

It also eliminates the expense of a well and septic system, and makes it easier for neighbors to work on each other's houses and bond with each other in the process.

Yawson hopes to have five families at time building homes in Magnolia Place, under the direction of subcontractors who will provide training and supervision to guarantee the quality of the homes.

"I'm just the new kid on the block," Yawson said many times during the interview.

A number of officials from Newton County, the Deep East Texas Council of Governments and the state government will attend the groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow, which will be followed by the Mennonite appreciation dinner (see Mennonite story in this issue.)