“I love that I know my neighbors, either by name or wave”

We are overjoyed for Ms. Daone to have finally found some peace on Poplar Street, where she bought a home in 2019 after years of less-than-peaceful renting situations. Decades of dealing with unmitigated mold, tensions with neighbors, unresolved repairs, and regularly having her car hit outside of her apartment, she started doing whatever she could to save money towards a downpayment on a home. 

Extra hours at work, cooking meals, looking after friends’ children…Ms. Daone knows it took her exactly four years and 9 months to save enough to achieve her dream of peaceful homeownership. She even took the homeownership class through what was then Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership ((now Tenfold -- a resource that is still available!), which greatly aided her in her pursuit to create a budget, improve her credit, and better understand the homebuying process. With the help of Tenfold’s homebuyer assistance loan and her years of persistence & grit, she finally found her peace on Poplar Street, her first time living in the neighborhood.

So when she woke up to a foot of funky sewer water in her basement this past December 2025, she immediately took steps to protect her peace. But just calling a plumber to investigate the problem was enough to drain her savings. It turned out her sewer trap and surrounding pipes needed to be replaced. 

“He just kept pulling dirt and gravel out of my pipes…and when he told me how much it would take to fix it…I don’t remember the number he said, but I remember it was enough to make me dizzy.” 

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve lower income homeowners through our home repair & façade improvement programs, especially since these types of critical (and expensive!) repairs can pop up at any time. And as Ms. Daone aptly recounts, “everything’s going up {groceries, utilities, gas prices, etc.} except everyone’s pay.” Thankfully a friend from her church suggested she reach back out to Tenfold and eventually she found her way to the SoWe office and our home repair program! She qualified for our grant and was one step closer to restoring her peace on Poplar St. And while record snowfalls and months of freezing temperatures slowed the process, her sewer trap & pipes are finally fixed, the concrete sidewalk is repoured, her basement is dry, and peace is restored once more.

“This neighborhood is a special place. And it’s so rare to have an organization like SoWe…to be a place in the neighborhood, for the neighborhood.” She is so grateful we were able to support her through this home repair and we are grateful for the chance to connect with another neighbor who cares so deeply for her block and community. Her message to other neighbors who may find themselves in similar situations is, “there are good people out there. There is help, especially when you feel alone.” We hope you get the chance to know Ms. Daone, either by name or wave!