Lake County commissioners have approved an agreement to allow Western Reserve Community Development Corp. to build a new home on previously vacant property in Painesville.

A new single-family home with a basement would be built at 107 Prospect Ave. near the Asper Commons subdivision also constructed by the group, said Jason Boyd, Lake County Planning Commission director and federal grants administrator.

The proposal would cost $160,000 and money to pay for the project comes from the Home Investment Partnership Program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Typically, the use of these federal funds are used to acquire blighted property to be rehabilitated and then sold, Commissioner Robert E. Aufuldish said Thursday during the commissioners’ meeting.

“Instead of doing that, we’ll put up a new home,” he said.

Sabrina Waytes is executive director for Western Reserve Development Corporation, a private nonprofit company based in Painesville.

She said the project would dovetail on the success of the agency’s Asper Commons project.

That development features seven homes that were available to lease with an option to purchase at the end of the program.

Read Entire Article | The News-Herald

Sabrina Waytes was born and raised in Painesville, and relished the chance to recently become Western Reserve Community Development Corp.’s new executive director.

The nonprofit private company based in Painesville has two primary missions — to construct new homes and to rehabilitate and repair others.

Waytes has more than 15 years of experience in banking and financial services, mostly community development.

She formerly was a real estate asset manager of affordable housing developments in Ohio and throughout the South. During that time, Waytes noticed that many of the developments that were built needed a nicer touch.

When she was laid off from that job and because of a strong desire to build better housing, she decided to become an interior design student at Cuyahoga Community College. She spent the last three years there until accepting the job with WRCD in February. Read Entire Article | The News-Herald