By VANESSA HO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

In 1989, the city promised to compensate the I-90 neighborhoods by building 374 to 661 homes. The plan was to buy land from the state and build a carefully planned community in the historically shunned area. But from the beginning, bureaucratic snags delayed the plan.

It wasn't until 1993 that the city gave the green light to HomeSight, the community-based, non-profit developer of many I-90 homes. Since then, it has built 50 units in Judkins Park and has 42 under construction. Habitat for Humanity and for-profit developers have also flocked to the area.

The new houses are selling well, says HomeSight Executive Director Dorothy Lengyel. HomeSight, which offers a down-payment assistance program, has built mostly single-family, affordable homes that have attracted professionals, first-time homeowners and young families with children. Prices range from $100,000 to $138,000.

The new residents are slowly changing the face of the traditionally working-class neighborhood of 5,000 people. According to the 1990 census, the median household income was $20,000, with about 25 percent of people living below the poverty line. About 40 percent of people owned a home, and the median house value was $80,000.

Vince Furfaro, a resident for most of his 63 years, remembers growing up next to stevedores, longshoremen and construction workers. Now, an environmental planner and two lawyers live down the street.

"The neighborhood is coming back, but it's 20 years after it should have happened," he says. In 1968, his father, concerned about the freeway, sold the family house to the state. In 1975, the state declared the land surplus, and Furfaro bought it back.

Continued:

• Once rejected, this urban community unites for the future
• I-90 decimated the neighborhood, but residents rebuilt it
• Diversity and location are drawing new residents
• Neighbors have kept the faith alive