We decided we didn't have the time or resources to make any of them comfortable.

Most of them had decayed roofs and severe water damage inside. The worst damage was rotten floors, the sort you could fall through.

The homes had been abandoned when heavy industry moved away and people lost their jobs. Just as bad, many white people with money did not want to move into neighborhoods where black people lived.

We ended up buying a house for $8,000 in a neighborhood where about half our neighbors were black and some were recent immigrants. We'd looked at a few homes in white neighborhoods but it was obvious we made people uncomfortable. My wife is Mexican American.

My own grandfather had been very upset that I'd married in his words, "A Mexican girl," because men in his family simply didn't do that. To his credit he got over it.