Family wins a free house in historic Alabama city. ‘A better chance at life’

By Savannah Tryens-Fernandes | Al.com | March 1, 2025

Fourteen women sat on the front porch of a new home, waiting to hear if their name would be called.

One winner would get a fully-furnished home for free. Around them, a DJ played while food trucks served the dozens of people gathered on the lawn.

A key with the name of each woman was put in a bingo cage – Desiree McGuire’s came out. The others on the porch hugged her as the crowd cheered. McGuire put on the heels she brought with her, just in case.

“It means hope, stability and a better chance at life,” she said.

McGuire put her name in the lottery that was available for families who have children in the Black Belt Community Foundation Head Start program.

The non-profit is working with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, a national nonprofit that helps people access affordable housing, the city of Selma and the Selma Housing Authority to build 100 new affordable homes. The goal is to help revitalize the city after a tornado hit in 2023, destroying more than 600 structures and roughly half of the residential neighborhoods in Selma.

This is the second home they’ve given away since April – and another may be possible in the future, the Housing Authority said.

“It’s amazing to know I get to live here with my family,” McGuire said. Along with her four-year-old, who is enrolled in Head Start, she will be moving into the home with her 7-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son.

“This gives my children a better chance and a head start as they become adults,” she said.

The homes are energy-efficient and climate resistant to help Selma be more resilient in the face of future natural disasters. They are also affordable, with a list price of $169,500 for the three bedroom, two bathroom homes.

For the first time, the Selma Housing Authority will also allow people to use Section 8 vouchers toward home ownership. The subsidies from the housing authority vouchers can go toward paying a mortgage every month instead of rent.

“This is the work that needs to be done, the work of not only giving away a home, but the work of transforming a family’s life,” Kennard Randolph, president of the Selma Housing Authority, said during the giveaway. “This is an opportunity that some of these people may never have reached, but because of this moment, they will reach it.”

The organizations first raffled off a free home last April to Tamicka Newberry and her husband, who lost their home in the tornado.

Newberry, who won the home across the street from McGuire, came to meet her new neighbor, saying the first year in her home has been “amazing.”

Like Newberry, McGuire will also have her home fully furnished by the organizations, the first year of insurance paid for to give her time to save money and financial counseling to help her sustain home ownership.

Taquila Monroe, president of the Alabama Head Start Association, added that “it reflects our true commitment to uplifting families and uplifting people who are often overlooked.”

The public-private partnership has built the first 10 homes, which are available for sale. The housing authority purchased the land while NACA purchased the houses with $700,000 in funding coming from the community foundation, according to leaders of the initiative.

Bank of America is also subsidizing the project.

The iconic civil rights city of just under 17,000 people west of Montgomery, has been the fastest-shrinking city in Alabama for many years. The population decline, hastened by white flight and the Craig Air Force Base closure in 1977, has caused many businesses and community centers, such as the Brown YMCA, to permanently shutter.

Since Selma won the nation the right to vote in the 1960s, the population has gone down by 37% and by 13% in the last decade alone.

The city has long been plagued by a housing shortage that makes it difficult for people to both live and work in Selma.

Many of the affordable multi-family and single-family homes in Selma were designated for low-income residents or senior living, leaving middle class families and individuals few options. Some buildings were left abandoned as residents moved away or died.

“We want to create those opportunities, not only for our residents, but for school teachers, for firefighters, for people that work at the hospital, anybody who wants to live and work in Selma,” Randolph told AL.com last year. “This could significantly help with our city’s growth and revitalization.”

 

Once the first 100 houses are built, the partnership wants to then expand the affordable housing program throughout the Black Belt.

“The homes that you see before you are not the end product. We plan to go north, south, east and west. We plan to revitalize every neighborhood that was affected by the storm,” Randolph said. “Selma is on the rise…it will be great again.”