Terri Bailey and her family were the first homeowners living in the 5th Avenue/Pleasant Street neighborhood to get the exterior of their home painted for free as part of a program sponsored by the city of Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency.
Known as the Fifth Avenue Pleasant Street Residential Paint Voucher Program, the program was created by the CRA to help reduce blight in the area and to improve the aesthetics of the community, which is bound on the east by N. Main Street, the west by NW 13th Street, the north by NW 8th Avenue and the south by NW 3rd Avenue.
“We are very excited about the project, and we are very excited the CRA is doing this for the residents of the community,” said Bailey, while taking a brief break Saturday from painting with volunteers at her three-bedroom/two and a half bathroom home, located in a cul-de-sac off NW 7th Avenue behind the Gainesville Police Department headquarters. “This really makes a big difference to us because we don’t have $5,000 to get the house painted. So this is a big blessing and a big, big help.”