b'FIRST HOMEBlackwellAnthony and Tara Clary South RichmondANTHONY: IgrewupinBlackwell.WhenIwentaway to school, I did not intend to come back. There was too muchcrimeinthearea.TaraandIplannedtomoveto thesuburbstoraiseourfamily.Wewerelookingfora house in Chesterfield. I happened to drive through my old neighborhood one day, and saw the houses going up. I said Wow! Everything had changed. I called Tara and told her to come and look.TARA:We bought this home in December 2005. When we moved in, our daughter was two. Shes now 10 and were a family of six! We looked at so many houses before this one. For what we could afford, all of them were small, outdated, and needed a lot of work. Our dollars went a lot further here, and we liked being able to choose the options we wanted since it was new. We made it our own.ANTHONY: In the future, Id like to see our city take better care of our young people aging out of foster care or leaving juveniledetentioncenters.Iworkwiththehomeless population, and see so many kids17, 18 years old. They have no one, and nothing. They need so much help to get back on their feet.TARA:Id like to see more affordable housing like this being built in our city for middle- and working-class families; and laws that protect the affordability, so developers cant come in, buy up the property and sell at a higher rate. Also, we need access to better food options here. Blackwell is in a food desert.ANTHONY: It has anchored us so much as a family to be back in our communitywe realize the value of that now. BHC built not just houses here, they built a whole community.12| Better Housing Coalition'