SAGINAW, MI — The president of Houghton-Jones Neighborhood Association has a dream.
Anganetta Ervin asks, “Our big 2025 question is, “Can we acquire a closed-up Houghton School, remodel it from the ground up, and maintain it?”
This may be news to the new City Council, along with a veteran Board of Education, in regards to a structure that has stood vacant for a decade across from the Houghton-Jones headquarters, 1604 Johnson at Eleventh.
That’s where Anganetta grew up, completing K-6 during the late 1960s baby boom population peak when the Houghton campus also was home to the former Mershon Pool.
Her background in community action goes back even farther than the original Houghton-Jones Task Force.
It takes root with her parents.
The Rev. Charles Birden became a union steward at Malleable Iron and was involved in the formation of the Saginaw County Community Action Center, and Zenobia Birden joined her husband in promoting faith through social action.
And so it was only natural that when organizer Hazel Wilson came door-knocking 32 years ago, Anganetta and her husband, Willie Ervin, responded to the call. Willie also serves on the Houghton-Jones board.
From her upbringing, she is attracted to the grassroots approach that was reflected by Wilson, who has moved back home to rural Mississippi. Guidance also came from other founders like Christina Jones and Sister Lois Ann Sheaffer.
“I was there at the start,” she notes.
What’s up with the school?
Now she’s beginning her second year as Houghton-Jones board president, re-selected by acclaim at a Dec. 19 session.
She looks forward to maintaining the blend of youth activities, both summer and after-school, and community groups using the center for meetings. She emphasizes that the group saved money on repaving the parking lot thanks to an ARPA grant from the City Council, allowing regular funds to remain concentrated on programs and activities.
But like her parents would do, she also looks for higher goals. As Houghton Elementary stands empty, with the health-clinic wing facing the small-sized neighborhood center at Johnson and Eleventh streets, she asks whether 2025 should be the year for the group to step in and raise questions about the future of what once was the city’s largest K-6 school.
“We could use some space,” Ervin said, after an annual meeting with about two dozen participants led to a near overflow at the 3,000-square-foot facility, built with local monies organized through the Saginaw Community Foundation shortly after the millennium’s turn.
When ARPA funds came along through President Biden’s anti-pandemic American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Houghton-Jones asked for use of the health clinic and gym at the east end of the building closest to headquarters. This idea was not discussed at the time of main decisions.
Housing plan disappears
In late 2021, as reported only by Michigan Banner (Oct. 1 and 16), the Saginaw Consortium of Homeless Assistance Providers, S-CHAP, floated and quickly withdrew a plan to use ARPA as seed money for conversion of the school classrooms into affordable housing apartments, often cited as in short supply with skyrocketing rents.
CHAP Chair Dan Streeter of the Rescue Mission said neighborhood opposition caused the pullout, even while the Houghton-Jones leader at the time, Rev. Willie Casey, said neighbors simply wanted a meeting to learn more.
United Way was coordinator of the stalled venture, and other partners were Habitat for Humanity, Restoration Outreach, the Housing Commission, County Mental Health, Youth Protective Services, Mustard Seed, Emmaus House, Disabled American Veterans, Mission in the City and the county Department of Social Services.
Ervin said Houghton-Jones leaders would consider any ideas that may emerge.
Time for teamwork
The next meeting is at 6 p.m. on Feb. 13, which will be a Thursday. Count on Willie Ervin to be there, always to back his bride of 48 years. He denies her claim that he tries “all the time” to guide her leadership choices, because he merely picks his spots when he might get a word in edgewise.
Other board members are Saleem Manaan as vice-president, Angie Jones (daughter of Christina, who turned 90 years old on Christmas Day and still remains active) as secretary and Ceciel Reed as treasurer.
The Houghton-Jones website at https://www.houghtonjones.org offers info on options for volunteering.
