In this 1256 Movement video you can hear homeowner Kamaria Clardy share her heart about how it feels to see her 70-year-old home restored to new life for her family. She says, “Thank you 1256 for helping me re-build my blessing. It’s what my family has known, my children have known, what I have known. I am so grateful to keep my blessing!”
A few years ago, Kamaria Clardy escaped from a fire in her home in North Tulsa. Her home, however, sustained heavy smoke damage. Though she owns her own home, she had to move out and rent while her house sat vacant and wasting. I heard about Kamaria’s story through FEMA and the City of Tulsa’s Working In Neighborhoods (WIN) program.
Kamaria Clardy’s family is one of the 1,256 Black families receiving a $10,000 reparation for her home through 1256 Movement. We are now renovating Kamaria’s home with those funds. I am working alongside Kamaria’s family and a crew to demo the smoke damaged parts while salvaging a strong foundation and frame. We are repurposing lumber from the house itself and windows and doors from other jobs to save every dollar and make this rehab affordable.
As you can see in the video, the home is now ready for re-wiring, insulation, drywall, paint, fixtures, and more. It will cost much more than $10,000, but getting the home “habitable” in the City of Tulsa terms will allow five year forgivable HUD loans for further renovations.
I love the picture of my foreman, Henry Pinto, giving a high five and hug to Kamaria’s mother, who had grown up in this home in the 1950s. When Kamaria served the crew Church’s chicken in the street on the truck of her car, it was a beautiful thing to watch God’s children of many races loving one another like this.
Donate to 1256 Movement
Mail Checks to:
1256 Movement 3650 Camelot Dr. Bartlesville, OK 74006
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Published by Greg Ross Taylor
I am a home builder in Northeastern Oklahoma and president of 1256Movement.org. Proceeds from my latest book published in 2023, Prodigals, benefit this nonprofit dedicated to reparations of racial trauma in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Taylor is author of several books, including a coauthored work with Randy Harris titled Living Jesus. He and his wife, Jill, have three adult children, Ashley, Anna, and Jacob, for whom Prodigals is dedicated.
I’ve been a writer for 30 years, a professional writer and editor for most of those years. No matter what other jobs I’ve done, I’ve continued to write. I’m the author, co-author, editor, or ghostwriter of many books you can see here.
You’ll find a lot of topics I’ve written about listed and I've tried to categorize them so there should be bread crumbs for you to follow your interests. I’m 2024, I’ll celebrate 20 years of blogging. You can also find lots of free articles I’ve published in various magazines if you search my name at Christianity Today, Sojourners, and Wineskins. I wrote many book reviews for Publishers Weekly some years back but most of the reviews are not named reviews for sake of objectivity.
View more posts
