“I’m just going to be positive about this. I just have to speak it into existence.”
That’s how Kaleisha Chance describes her refuse-to-fail attitude about becoming a first-time homeowner.
And it paid off. Kaleisha is now the proud owner of one of the affordable homes developed by CSNDC on New England Avenue as part of the “New England Heritage Homes” project.
“I came here and I fell in love with the property,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘This is what I want, this is where I want to be.’”
Kaleisha’s journey to homeownership started many years before. In fact, it started when someone else became a first-time homeowner – her godmother, Licia McLean, who Kaleisha refers to as her aunt. Licia won the affordable housing lottery through the City of Boston in 2000 and has been living in her home on Marden Avenue ever since.
“She knew the process, so she was able to help me through it,” says Kaleisha. “When she saw there were houses being built, she said, ‘You need to try this.’”
Hesitant at First
Only 26 years old at the time, Kaleisha was hesitant. She had completed the First-Time Homebuyer Program through the city, but still didn’t feel ready.
“At first, I was nervous about submitting an application because I just didn’t have the money at the time,” she remembers. “My aunt told me I just need to have a little bit saved up and she helped me learn how to begin saving. I started getting more disciplined with how I spend my money because I knew there was a goal in the future.”
“When we saw a flyer about these homes being built, she encouraged me to sign up,” says Kaleisha. “She said, ‘Just do it. You never know unless you try.’ So I did.”
She met with the realtor and the bank and, despite concerns about her credit score, she was pre-approved for the loan and she submitted her application to the Boston Home Center. Unfortunately, the first year her lottery number was too high.
“I kind of got discouraged,” she remembers.
But she kept focused on her goal. The next year, she applied again, and this time got a number high enough that it gave her hope. By this time, she had given birth to her beautiful daughter, Kennedy. That’s when she decided to “speak it into existence” through a “positive attitude.” After several months of paperwork, she was able to purchase her new home in July of 2021.
“They gave me the keys and I came in here with an air mattress and made it work,” she says proudly. “It feels really good. I was nervous about how my neighbors would welcome me. But they were super supportive and very friendly. They were especially pleased to see a black face in the neighborhood owning a home, still here in the community and not getting pushed out.”
Dance Moms
Kaleisha credits her godmother and another mentor for giving her another important gift in her life ― dance. She says her first “Dance Mom” was Andrea Herbert Major, the Artistic Director at the Roxbury Center for the Performing Arts.
“Ms. Andrea gave me the passion and drive, and that opened my eyes to the fact that the world is bigger than Dorchester,” she says. “She took me to New York for classes. She pushed me in my dance career.”
But it was Licia who helped pave the way for her to build her life around dance, having owned and operated Four Star Dance Studio in Codman Square for twenty years. Kaleisha teaches there under her mentorship ― that is, when she’s not serving in her role as Director of Arts for Codman Academy Charter School in Dorchester, or taking care of her daughter and her foster child, or when she’s not pursuing her master’s degree in arts and teaching at Mount Holyoke College.
“Growing up, I struggled with academics and dance was the way I could show I was also good at something,” she reflects. “My godmother was my voice of reason. She said, ‘Let her dance if she wants to dance.’”
“Dance saved my life,” she says.
Giving Back
Now, Kaleisha is determined to mentor and support young kids who, like herself, want to dance and just need someone to believe in them.
“Having a studio in the heart of Dorchester is my way of giving back to my community,” she says. “Sometimes you just need that safe haven or that teacher that’s not your parent who can see you in a light that you might not see yourself in.”
“We all don’t learn the same,” she says. “I can use my own personal experience to find a way to meet the needs of all learners, and make sure they have a safe space in my classroom to create and express and feel successful.”
In fact, Kaleisha now considers herself a “Dance Mom” to many of her students. One of her students, who has been under her tutelage since she was eight years old, recently performed with Lizzo at the Grammys!
“She called me and said, Kiki, I made it,” she beams. “The fact that she came back to share that with me was amazing. My goal is to be a mentor for the youth of Boston – because I made it and I want them to know they can do it as well. I want to give them that opportunity to shine.”
