SUMTER, S.C. — Affordable housing is coming to the south Sumter area, as one man works to clean up his community. The Sumter native is working to meet the need of his hometown by constructing new homes.
“All I wanted to do is be a person who could be part of the solution instead of part of the problem,” Vincent Spann explained.
It’s the realization Spann had when he moved back to his hometown in 2009 after living in New York City for a few years. When he saw the community he’d grown up in, he realized it had changed.
“It looked dilapidated and looked like they needed some help,” Spann shared. “You know, they needed some help. It was one of those things where you say, ‘Wow, what happened? Like, we had things going on and it just looks horrible, there’s like nothing's going on.”
As a result, Spann has pledged to build 40 houses along the corridor between Lafayette and Manning Avenues.
“You had a generation of people who left the area. So what happened, you had, it was almost like a Diaspora. People would leave here and go to Atlanta, New York, Florida, Charlotte, because all of the jobs were there,” Spann said about the reason for the change. “That's where if you wanted to be somebody, you know back in the day, that's what you had to do. And you had to leave your small town. Now we live in a brave new world. It's totally different. You have the gig economy. A person could…doesn't have to go anywhere. You can live on a country dirt road and actually make a real good living. You can reach the world.”
Now, Spann says he’s built 10 homes along the corridor between Lafayette and Manning Avenue with construction continuing on more.
Isaac Stuckey lives in the area and says he’s happy to see the impact Spann is making on the community.
“It gives hope because there’s a lot of people around here that are wanting to do those things but doesn’t have I guess you could say the tools, the strategy, you know what I mean, or the funds to do it. So if somebody that does have the funds to do it and I could say the resources, you know what I mean, it’s great,” Stucky said. “Your environment is a big part of the energy you portray. So to have a place where you have central heat and air, to have a place where you have enough room for your children, your family, your wife to do things, to decorate, and things like that is great. Because it makes having a family easier.”
Spann agrees.
“If a person is coming out and they see the filth and degradation every day, and everything is dilapidated, it does something to the psyche; it actually affects the way they look at themselves,” Spann added. “If the community looks good, if your house looks nice, you start to feel better and I can tell you that from being young and being disenfranchised when I was younger. It was a big thing just to have clean shoes and nice shoes and nice clothes. That was a big thing that made you feel better. Don't you feel better when you’re dressed well and you're smelling well and you're looking good?”
Spann says in addition to helping improve people’s perceptions of themselves, it’s also bringing people to the area.
“We have a need for housing in a major way. We have a need for housing. And that's no different here on the south side of Sumter than it is anywhere else,” Spann explained. “When you’re rebuilding a community, now you start having families moving. For years, I never saw a bus ride down Brand Street. But now buses are coming back. You have kids living here now.”
Spann says he’s building on the skills he learned from his grandfather who worked in construction and gave Spann his first job when he was a kid.
This was actually my first love you could say because this is what I used to do as a kid, but it's probably the work of a lifetime, the work that I do now,” Spann shared. “I ran from this my entire life. I ran from this, construction, anything that would have me in the sun and anything that would have been out here, you know, sweating.”
Although he came from a family of skilled tradesmen, Spann says he never thought he would end up back in construction.
“I really thought I would be in New York City for the rest of my life,” Spann smiled. “It’s one of those things where in life, you expect to do certain things. But then God will put you in places where you're actually doing things that you might not really expect to do…This was divine intervention. There was no reason for me to ever really get back into it.”