A former PHA resident hopes to house others like him. The developer just sold his first home in Kingsessing.

Mashia Quillen knows what it’s like to have to start over. It’s what she did about five years ago after a series of setbacks, including the loss of her job and home and the serious illness of one of her sons.

Now, Quillen and her children live in a newly renovated three-bedroom, 1½-bathroom rowhouse in Kingsessing that she bought in early November for $195,000.

Buying her first home and creating generational wealth for her family was one of her biggest goals. And she wanted to set an example for her children: her daughter, who started at Pennsylvania State University this fall with a full scholarship, and her twin 14-year-old sons.

“I just wanted to show them hard work and dedication and being able to own something of your own and keep building from that,” Quillen, 41, said. “A lot of it, I give thanks to God, because I prayed every day that something was gonna come my way and things would work out for me.”

Quillen, a charge nurse at an assisted-living facility, didn’t have to bring any of her own money to closing, thanks to a first-time homebuyer grant and funds thrown in by the seller — a small developer who renovated the home as his first investment property.

Andre Johnson hopes the once-blighted Kingsessing property is the first of many he can transform into the decent affordable housing for low-income families that Philadelphia needs. He sees his business as a way to pay forward the opportunities he has been able to seize.

“I just wanted to help somebody that looks like me, comes from my background — who came from the same spot I was in a few years ago,” said Johnson, a 36-year-old father of two.

For most of his life, Johnson lived in the Richard Allen public housing development in North Philadelphia. But “I always wanted more for myself,” he said.

Through a program for Philadelphia Housing Authority renters, Johnson was able to purchase his first home in 2019 in the Cobbs Creek area. He enrolled in programs offered by PHA and others and learned construction trades. Then he started his general-contracting business, Limitless Lifestyle Realty, in 2021.

“People don’t know, but PHA is really like a stepping stone,” Johnson said.

He bought what is now Quillen’s home from PHA, which required that the property be sold to a buyer making at or below 80% of the area median income, or $91,750 for a household of four.

“That project right there is really special to me,” Johnson said. He’s “so happy,” he said, that the property went to someone who “is trying to go ahead and set up a good future for her family.”

Quillen said another home seller had rejected her offer because she was getting assistance from a first-time homebuyer program and worried she wouldn’t have sufficient funds to close on the home.

She said she fell in love with Johnson’s house and its new appliances, finished basement, and central air-conditioning.

“A lot of people can’t afford outrageous prices for a nice house,” she said. “I was grateful that Andre was able to work with me.”

Johnson was looking to start a career when he decided to get into construction.

“I was always good with my hands and fixing things,” he said. “I liked taking things apart and putting them back together.”

He was introduced to the building trades as a teenager, when he helped renovate a North Philadelphia barbershop. Later, he learned how to do electrical and construction work thanks to PHA, the Electrical Association of Philadelphia, and Trades for a Difference, an organization based in East Mount Airy aiming to train people of color in construction trades.

“I was one of the people that took advantage of the resources,” said Johnson, who also works in building maintenance at a Radnor Township elementary school.

In 2020, he graduated from a training program offered by Jumpstart Germantown, which taught him about real estate development. The Philadelphia-based Jumpstart program also gives loans and support to aspiring developers.

Ken Weinstein, the Northwest Philadelphia developer who founded Jumpstart, said he was glad to hear that Johnson had completed his first project. “It’s the first one that’s always the hardest,” he said.

A majority of people who go through the Jumpstart program do not become real estate developers. But ones who do buy blighted properties, renovate them, and then either rent them to tenants or sell them.

» READ MORE: Philly residents who want to be real estate developers can now get Jumpstart loans citywide

Weinstein said he wasn’t surprised by Johnson’s motivations.

“Paying it forward is very much part of our Jumpstart program,” he said. “The important thing is to realize someone helped you get where you are and you should turn around and do the same for someone else.”

Since Jumpstart began nearly a decade ago, the program has provided almost $60 million in loans for about 475 projects, Weinstein said. Jumpstart has expanded to 19 training programs across the country, with the majority in Pennsylvania. The city of Chester is starting a program, and Newark started one a few months ago as the first New Jersey location.

The 1,200-square-foot property in Kingsessing was in rough shape when Johnson got it from PHA. It had been sitting for a while, and squatters were living in it.

Johnson said that in addition to his desire to provide housing at an affordable price, he “really wanted to make that eyesore on the block go away.”

He had originally hoped to get a PHA property through a partnership between the housing authority and Jumpstart, but there weren’t enough available. Through lotteries in 2021, 2022, and 2023, small, new developers got PHA homes for $10 to help them get their businesses started.

When Johnson didn’t get a lottery property, he went directly to PHA.

“He was extremely persistent in making his case,” said Kelvin Jeremiah, president and chief executive officer of PHA. “We afforded him an opportunity, and he succeeded.”

Johnson bought the home from PHA last summer for $1. He then stripped it bare and built it back new. He held his first open house in September on the fourth anniversary of the day he lost his brother to gun violence, which he took as a sign he was doing what he was meant to do.

Jeremiah said PHA would like to continue to work with Johnson as he grows his business.

“We want to provide opportunities for equitable, inclusive development that gives people an opportunity to build generational wealth,” Jeremiah said.

Johnson said he’s looking for more properties to buy, and he wants to get into new construction and multifamily homes that he can hold onto as rental properties.

Quillen, Johnson’s first homeowner, said she’s still soaking in the fact that she owns her home while also hoping to one day help house people experiencing homelessness.

“I knew that this would help me continue my dreams and aspirations to be able to do what I want to do to help people,” she said.