On Monday, surrounded by colleagues and legislators, Dianne Bingham helped break the ground for the Black Diamond Hope House, a home to be built by Bingham’s organization, The Krysti Bingham Cerebral Palsy Foundation, aimed at offering independent living for those with severe cerebral palsy. The home was a milestone, not only because it was KBCPF’s first home, but also because it came close to never being built at all.
    Dianne’s daughter, Krysti, was born two months premature. She has cerebral palsy and is legally blind. Cerebral palsy is a condition in which incorrect development or damage to the brain occurring before, during or right after the birth of a child results in problems with muscle control and movement coordination. Once a child is born with cerebral palsy, their condition does not alter for better or for worse throughout their life.
    “Generally people with cerebral palsy are very intelligent,” Dianne said. “They just have trouble with their bodies.”
    When Krysti was two-years-old, Dianne’s mother died. Losing her made Dianne ask the question of who would provide Krysti with specialized care after she and her husband died.
    “I started a foundation to take care of others like her,” Dianne said.
    Six years ago, Dianne and her husband John wrote a grant application for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities, which provides very low-income housing for those with disabilities. The grant was turned down.
    Unwilling to give up, Dianne contacted the office of Sen. Tom Carper (D-Delaware) for help. Carper lobbied HUD for a debriefing in which Dianne and John learned to fix up their grant and re-apply. After they did, the grant was accepted.
    Diane Lello, director of the Wilmington Field Office of HUD, said what made the Bingham’s stand out was that their cause was truly one in need, as the organization was not a professional one, but a family with no previous experience of building a home.
    “We really should get involved with every one who doesn’t get it the first time around,” Lello said.
    In the end, Dianne received $680,000 from HUD. Through her fundraising work, she also received $200,000 from the Delaware State Housing Authority’s Housing Development Fund for the land and $280,000 from New Castle County Community Services for the remainder of construction. She also received more than $520,000 from private funders.
    “She’s just someone you can’t say ‘no’ to,” Lello said, “and she’s not someone you want to say ‘no’ to.”
    Dianne said the home cost is $1.3 million overall. The money for the house itself has been raised, but KBCPF will continue to raise money to maintain the house.
    The Hope House will be open to six people, the first resident being Krysti, she said. Those in wheelchairs have top priority, but the home is open to anyone with the need and disabilities.
    The Hope House will be 75,000 square feet, with a half-basement and door in the back. Dianne said there will be six bedrooms, each with a shower that can be rolled into on a wheelchair and a lift system. It will also feature a walk-out deck for each bedroom, a kitchen, a family room, a theatre room, a parlor, a sun room and a fireplace.
    Dianne said Mosaic, Inc. will staff the Hope house 24 hours a day. U & I Investments are the builders and Sherri Kimmel of Kimmel Bogrette Architecture is the architect. She is hoping the home will be finished by fall/winter 2008.
    “This is going to be a wonderful, wonderful place to live,” Carper said.
    Lello said the home is needed at this time. In Fiscal Year 2007, HUD found there were more than 10,000 complaints of discrimination in selling or renting a home nationwide. Of those complaints, 43 percent were of discrimination based on disabilities. By comparison, 37 percent were based on race.
    “It will be one of its kind in the state,” Lello said.
    Dianne said she has been working to open an additional Hope House near Langollen Estates on U.S. 13, near the U.S. 40 intersection. While the home has met resistance there, she said the reception of Black Diamond Hope House has positive. One neighbor moved in after learning the house would be coming to the area, and two other adjacent neighbors have offered to donate pipe and light fixtures to the house.
    “Everybody here has been outstanding,” she said.
    The Black Diamond Hope House will be located on U.S. 13 north of Smyrna, south from Helen’s Sausage House and across from the Delaware Department of Transportation building. For more information, go to www.krysti.org.