New London ― When Tamiequa Knowles looked down at the yawning pit at 32 Blackhall St. on Wednesday, she saw her future.

The hole, slated to become a three-story home, was the location of a groundbreaking ceremony hosted by H.O.P.E. Inc., the nonprofit affordable housing group that previously built 22 homes on nearby Belden Street.

Knowles, a school bus driver for the Groton public school system, is applying to move into the soon-to-be-built home after years of living in a rented apartment on Terrace Avenue overseen by H.O.P.E.

“I’m super excited and have been asking questions every day,” she said in front of a large excavator. “It’s like it’s already happened.”

The 42-year-old Queens, N.Y., transplant, who hopes to move into the new home with her four children, said she’s already taken advantage of H.O.P.E. first-time homeowner and financial management classes.

“I would be the first home buyer in my family,” she said. “I’m waiting to meet with the banks.”

The Blackhall Street property will become the 47nd low- to moderate-income home built or renovated by H.O.P.E. in the last 34 years, including the 22 houses already occupied on Belden Street.

It’s also the first build overseen by Stacey Smith, who took over as executive director of the group in June after the retirement of longtime leader Marilyn Graham.

Smith spent a good portion of Wednesday’s ceremony with a huge grin on her face as she walked the property and met with attending city officials, board members and building crews.

“I’m just so excited,” she said. “This means everything to me, to help change the life of a lifetime renter, someone who normally wouldn’t be able to afford a home like this.”

For Graham, the ceremony served as a baton-passing moment and an assurance that the work of the group she steered for decades would continue.

“We were able to turn this street around,” she said, referring to Belden Street, a stretch of road that also bears the ceremonial name of “Marilyn Graham Way.” “When I want to feel good, I drive down and see these houses.”

H.O.P.E. was able to purchase the long-empty Blackhall Street lot for $20,000 and pay for the bulk of the $537,000 house build with federal housing tax credit money provided by Eversource.

Prospective tenants are vetted to ensure they can meet monthly mortgage payments, Smith said.

“Then, they’ll buy the home from us for $200,000,” Smith said. “They can occupy the entire home or rent out a portion. In many cases, these houses are home to multi-generational households.”

H.O.P.E.’s work in the city was lauded by several of Wednesday’s ground-breaking guests, including Mayor Michael Passero and state Rep. Anthony Nolan, D-New London.

“(H.O.P.E.) has transformed this neighborhood over 34 years and the progress is apparent,” Passero said. “Their business model is sustainable and the houses they built here are beautiful to this day.”

Nolan called the city “lucky” to have a group like H.O.P.E. operating in New London.

“To have them developing homes is a continued reward for all of us,” he said.

Brainstorming with faith leaders

Hours later on Wednesday at the Shiloh Family Life Center on Garvin Street, more than 30 church leaders and housing advocates from across the state met for a “Faith in Affordable Housing” forum sponsored by the Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity of Eastern Connecticut, CHEO, in partnership with CommUnity Street Ministry.

The seminar was the last of three.

“We want to learn from our neighbors on what successes they’ve had with affordable housing production and preservation and try and replicate it here,” said event moderator and CHEO Director Beth Sabila.

Panelists included Bobbie Braboy, program manager for Global City Norwich and a minister at Evans Memorial, AME Zion Church in Norwich; the Rev. Ron Kolanowski, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Hebron; and the Rev. Carl McCluster, senior pastor of the Bridgeport’s Shiloh Baptist Church.

McCluster and Kolanowski spoke about the role faith groups play in promoting low- and moderate-income options in their communities.

McCluster, the founder of the Faith Community Development Corp., the development group chartered by his church, said places of worship have always been “places of last resort” for residents in need of food, clothing and shelter.

McCluster said the most valuable commodity for any church is land.

“That puts a church in the driver’s seat,” he said, noting having land allows a church to negotiate what kind of housing it wants to build from a place of strength with its public and private partners.

Kolanowski, whose church owns 45 acres in the center of Hebron, plans to construct 50 mixed-use apartments on three acres of the property, a plan that so far has been warmly received by town officials.

“The trick is getting the funding – it's not a process for the faint of heart,” he said. “But the mission of the church is to address the needs of its community.”

For Braboy, that meant taking a chance on a left-field idea.

“I had this awesome dream of creating a tiny house village in the Taftville-Occum part of the city,” she said. “I saw it as a kind of stopgap, a place where people experiencing homelessness, or were at risk of being without a home, could go and have a better quality of life as they searched for permanent housing.”

Braboy said that idea, still in the idea stage, resonated with Kevin Brown, president of the Norwich Community Development Corp., who encouraged her to draw up formal plans, including a construction budget.

j.penney@theday.com