Rochester, NY, group works to keep city from going the way of Detroit

When the news first broke that the city of Detroit had filed for bankruptcy, Kim Brumber, CEO of NeighborWorks Rochester, shuddered. Rochester, NY, may not be Detroit, but there are some parallels that hit very close to home.

“Like Detroit, a core of industrial giants fueled Rochester’s early growth,” recalls Brumber, a longtime resident of the area. “For Detroit, it was the Big Three automakers. For Rochester, it was Xerox, Kodak and (just in August) Bausch & Lomb.  And just as the declining competitiveness of the auto industry was a trigger of Detroit’s economic downfall, Rochester experienced its own spiral when one by one, our big employers downsized or left the scene.”

Brumber believes the days of “mega-employers” are over, and that smaller-scale entrepreneurship is what will eventually revitalize Rochester as well as other cities like Detroit. That takes, time, however, and NeighborWorks Rochester is focused on doing its part to prevent the population flight witnessed by its larger counterpart. A key element in that struggle is making sure that residents are able to stay in or access safe, quality, affordable housing.

The family who lives in this house was unable
to pay to keep their home in good repair.

With the help of NeighborWorks
Rochester, the home is now transformed.

“People just don’t have the equity in their homes anymore to spend what it takes to keep them in good condition,” explains Brumber. “Our approach is to make it financially feasible for residents to maintain their houses, and recently, we began offering help with energy-efficiency improvements that reduce their energy costs as well. Much of the housing stock here is very old, so the energy costs are high. We can often save them $100 a month – that’s $1,200 a year, which is significant for the people who live here.”

Over the years, NeighborWorks Rochester has adjusted its philosophy and services to match the changing nature of the city’s needs. The nonprofit was one of the original NeighborWorks organizations, focusing on rehab loans at a time when redlining in the largely African-American communities resulted in disinvestment. Gradually, the organization expanded its scope and services -- including a new focus on neighborhood stabilization and marketing.

“The traditional model for neighborhood re-investment is to demolish drug houses, etc. in the most blighted neighborhoods, thinking that change would follow. But this strategy doesn't work in cities that have a soft real estate market," says Brumber. "We've learned that turning neighborhoods around requires a market-based approach that draws in private investment of time and resources -- ideally before they start to rapidly decline, the typical time to intervene.” 

Through its Healthy Blocks initiative, NeighborWorks Rochester

targets neighborhoods that are showing signs of social and economic disinvestment, but where residents are still trying to tread water. Through a combination of neighborhood “branding,” social gatherings and community-wide improvement activities, residents are encouraged and supported in their efforts to maintain the value of their property and nurture a sense of “belonging” that attracts and retains homeowners. For example, NeighborWorks Rochester partnered with the Realtors Charitable Foundation (an arm of the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors), the city’s police department, local businesses and others to energize the neighborhood called The Pocket. Monthly resident meetings are held in an area recreation center, and spring/fall clean-ups, ice cream socials and leadership workshops are among the results. An overgrown, vacant lot was transformed into the Emmighausen Garden, which produces an array of flowers and vegetables. Since 2008, sales prices in the neighborhood have increased 20 percent per square foot. What’s up next? A new logo soon will appear on street banners and crosswalks will feature “BoulevArt.”

In 2012, NeighborWorks Rochester reported re-investing $4 million into the city’s neighborhoods. The organization trained 365 individuals in how to be smart homeowners, helped 64 families become new homebuyers,  conducted 97 tests for lead in older homes and distributed 82 home-improvement loans and grants, totaling $1.2 million.

In a recent article in the Rochester City newspaper, a member of the editorial team wrote, “What the Greater Rochester community does will determine whether we’ll survive the impact of the changes in our own major industries, our suburban sprawl, our racial isolation. Rochester hasn’t reached Detroit’s depths yet. Maybe we never will. But the warning signs are there.”

NeighborWorks Rochester is among the mainstay organizations working to make sure the city never will.

NY organization helps families ‘fill the gaps’ when other assistance stops

When a tornado, hurricane or other disaster strikes, there is typically a rush of media attention and emergency assistance. But then, the spotlight shifts and families are left to struggle to fill the “gaps” that remain, on their own.

That’s what happened when Tropical Storm Irene hit the Eastern Coast on Aug. 29, 2011, and flood waters poured out of the Adirondack Mountains through the tiny town of Keene, in northern New York. The area was declared a disaster zone, and even after federal funds and private donations poured in, many families and businesses were still fighting to “stay afloat” months later. Fortunately, Housing Assistance Program of Essex County (HAPEC), which is celebrating its 10th year as a member of the NeighborWorks network, considers filling gaps to be its core mission.

Consider the story of Russ and Angie. The flood waters seriously damaged the stone foundation and first floor of the front section of their modest home, and the back addition with the bedrooms for their two preschool-aged children was destroyed.

The family of four moved temporarily onto the grounds of a local summer camp, while they began repairs using funds from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), community donations and their own retirement savings. However, although they were able to move back into their home in March of 2012, they didn’t have enough money to rebuild their children’s bedrooms, forcing the family to “double-up” in cramped quarters. Government assistance had dried up, and “donor fatigue” had set in, even among their friends. “Our family is at the end of our rope emotionally,” Russ wrote in one email to HAPEC, describing their plight.

A team from Habitat for Humanity joined HAPEC to help
re-build the family home of Russ and Angie.

That’s when HAPEC stepped in. With the help of a NeighborWorks America emergency-assistance grant, the organization helped the family pay off its outstanding loans, prepped the site for the re-build and recruited a Habitat for Humanity team to construct the new shell. Russ and Angie finished the walls and flooring. The finishing touch, again provided by HAPEC, was a wood-pellet stove for heating.

“Given what they had been through, and the exhaustion of their personal savings, Russ and Angie would not have been able to complete this work on their own for quite some time,” says Bruce Misarski, community development director for HAPEC. “Now, their house is ‘whole’ again, and they have bedrooms for their kids.”

HAPEC was founded in 1976 as the first local organization qualified to receive and administer HUD Section 8 rental assistance, which had just been authorized by Congress two years before. Today, HAPEC defines its focus much more broadly: to “alleviate economic distress, enhance personal dignity and cultivate self-reliance” in a rural county where employment mostly depends on low-wage, seasonal tourism and the household median income is 18 percent below the national average.

HAPEC services range from assistance with homebuyer education, to home repairs, to partnerships for the development of affordable multi-family housing. An impact assessment conducted for HAPEC and published in 2011 found that in one year, the organization:

• Created nearly 92 jobs – one of every 200 jobs in Essex County alone.
• Assisted 35 families in purchasing their first home.
• Helped 57 homeowners rehab their existing houses.
• Issued 650 rental-assistance vouchers.
• Managed 25 apartments for senior citizens.
• Provided foreclosure counseling for 44 families.

Alan Hipps, executive director, points to two keys that are instrumental to his organization’s success: effective fundraising – more than $2.5 million a year – and creative partnerships with other institutions, such as Habitat for Humanity and NeighborWorks America. “Our mission is simple, but ambitious: We strive to recognize community development and housing needs, advocate change and respond to opportunities.”

NeighborWorks Rochester Expands Healthy Blocks Approach

By Ascala Sisk, Senior Manager
Neighborhood Stabilization
NeighborWorks America

Reposted from StableCommunities.org

NeighborWorks Rochester has partnered with residents in three neighborhoods to make exterior home improvements, address quality of life issues, and attract new residents and investment. Through this targeted “Healthy Blocks” approach, homeowners, tenants and landlords work together to create neighborhoods of value and choice.

After eight years of sponsoring “Makeover Madness” home beautification campaigns, organizing social events, planting gardens, sponsoring neighborhood clean-ups, and promoting new neighborhood branding, the Healthy Blocks approach has proven to be successful in improving physical conditions, creating pride, and fostering a community identity. For example, in “The Pocket,” a 7-block neighborhood of 750 residents in the East Main–Atlantic area, NeighborWorks Rochester has observed that physical conditions are improving, the average sales price is up 20 percent since 2008, and homes on the market sell in an average of 18 days as compared to 27 days in 2008 — all signs of a rebounding housing market.

Building on this success, NeighborWorks Rochester is considering candidates for its next two Healthy Blocks initiatives. To help with the selection and to train new staff members on the core components of this approach, NeighborWorks Rochester CEO Kim Brumber turned to David Boehlke, the nation’s leading Healthy Neighborhoods strategist. Joining them over the course of two rainy days in January 2013 were representatives from NeighborWorks Western Vermont who wanted to learn how they might apply this thinking to their own newly selected target neighborhood in the town of Rutland.

With a healthy dose of offbeat humor, Boehlke stressed the need for strategies that are grounded in market realities and build confidence among existing residents. “Markets need to be built,” he said, “not just houses.” This is especially true in cities with stagnant or declining populations where potential homebuyers have many homes and neighborhoods to choose from. In order to compete, you need to reposition your neighborhood in the marketplace. Building confidence in the future of the neighborhood validates people’s choice to live there, creates pride, and encourages investment because it makes economic sense.

So, how do you build confidence? A lot of it has to do with image and physical conditions. Neighborhoods with houses that are reasonably well-maintained and have tidy gardens and litter-free streets instantly convey that this is a neighborhood where current residents succeed, and where future homeowners would want to buy. But according to Boehlke, the key to building confidence is engaging residents and building their capacity to manage day-to-day neighborhood issues. Ultimately, people are more likely to invest in areas where residents work together to improve the quality of life.

As NeighborWorks Rochester considers its next Healthy Blocks, it will select neighborhoods where resident engagement activities and modest investments in home repairs are likely to leverage additional investment. As the team from NeighborWorks Western Vermont also learned, Healthy Blocks’s focus on building markets, improving image and physical conditions, and fostering resident leadership offers lessons for other organizations that are designing place-based revitalization strategies.

To learn more about the Healthy Neighborhoods approach that David Boehlke created and teaches, take a look at his monograph, Great Neighborhoods, Great Cities, written about the Healthy Neighborhoods approach in Baltimore for the Goldseker Foundation.
 

Reflections on Superstorm Sandy After Six Months

by Deborah Boatright, northeast regional director, NeighborWorks America

Six months after Superstorm Sandy rocked the coastlines of New Jersey, New York City and Long Island, NeighborWorks America and its affiliates remain deeply engaged in helping homeowners and businesses to recover and rebuild. We are committed for the long haul; with our sights set on strengthening community resiliency in an era of climate change. 

Over the past six months, NeighborWorks America educated more than 750 contractors and homeowners at 13 mold remediation trainings, six of which were co-sponsored with NeighborWorks affiliates. A fully updated “Navigating the Road to Housing Recovery Guide”, providing “road maps” to residents on rebuilding, repairing, selling, relocating, buying or renting, was released in March, and 90 counselors and nonprofit professionals were trained in its use. The Navigating Guide and Mold Remediation tools are downloadable from our website: www.nw.org/sandy.

NeighborWorks America’s northeast regional headquarters is located in lower Manhattan, and our local staff has been steeped in recovery and resiliency discussions throughout the region. Our office was closed for four months due to flooding. Staff came back to a changed landscape. Many of the small stores that surround our building have yet to reopen; and the South Street Seaport, a major tourist attraction and hub for small businesses, remains shuttered. Similar conditions exist in other hard hit commercial areas along the region’s vast shoreline. 

Wayne Meyer, president of NeighborWorks affiliate
New Jersey Community Capital, was one of a dozen
people honored this week at the White House as
a Superstorm Sandy “Champion of Change for
the organization’s REBUILD New Jersey Fund.

This is a pivotal time in recovery and rebuilding, as congressionally appropriated resources are becoming available for deployment, and the private funding community is more organized and focused. NeighborWorks America has a unique role to play, utilizing our nationally regarded expertise in training, community building, impact measurement, capacity building and grant making. Our affiliates are doing great work, guided by a deep commitment and astute professionalism that is the hallmark of NeighborWorks. It is challenging work in the communities that we have all long called home.   

Wayne Meyer, president of New Jersey Community Capital (NJCC), was one of a dozen people honored this week at the White House as a Superstorm Sandy “Champion of Change” for the organization’s REBUILD New Jersey Fund. The REBUILD New Jersey Fund closed 23 loans totaling $800,000, preserving 135 jobs for customers like Architectural Hardware in Jersey City, New York, a family owned and operated distributor of metal and wood doors, frames and hardware for more than 40 years. Architectural Hardware had up to 56 inches of water, and lost a great amount of inventory and all its vehicles. Their loan allowed the owners and their nine employees to get back to business through the purchase a new forklift, replaced inventory, and replenished revenues.

In Monmouth County, New Jersey, homeowners and residents seeking help with their housing situation continue to come to the Affordable Housing Alliance’s offices daily, and the organization has seen a rise in the number of applicants for assistance through their statewide utility relief program.  Fifteen of the 17 mobile homes purchased by this NeighborWorks affiliate are now installed and on the way to full occupancy, and the  remaining two, accessible units for people with disabilities, are arriving soon. The Alliance’s work is featured in a compelling video by the Robin Hood Foundation, focusing on the story of Kanseisha Wilson, a home health aide and mother of two. 

Neighborhood Housing Services of East Flatbush, part of NeighborWorks affiliate NHS of New York City, opened a Housing Recovery Center in Brooklyn’s Canarsie section. Homeowners there were able to re-occupy their homes only after the City of New York’s rapid repair program addressed their most emergent needs.  Permanent repairs remain to be done, and funds are in short supply. NHS’ experienced contract management specialist has helped 57 families to assess their homes and plan for appropriate repair, and the organization secured funds for small grants of $10,000 to help offset the costs. Qualifying counselors assist families to negotiate insurance claims, address mortgage issues and avoid scams, which are rapidly growing. The innovative program was recently featured on NY1.

"It is important for Asian Americans for Equality to be there because
people in the community trust us. Our physical presence shows we are
there for the long haul,” said Raquel Colon, senior housing counselor.

Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) is working heavily in Queens, Southern Brooklyn and Staten Island with a focus on Asian Americans and new immigrants. AAFE has stationed staff at local grassroots organizations in Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay to strengthen their capacity, while offering grants, low interest loans, targeted technical assistance and one-to-one financial counseling to impacted homeowners and small businesses throughout the city. To date, over 160 businesses from all over the city have received loans totally $3.2 million from AAFE’s small business affiliate, and more than 200 walk-in clients were served just at one Emergency Help Center in Flushing, Queens. AAFE too is deeply concerned with scams and predatory contractors, and plans to review contractor records and work claims for homeowners. 

“There are three big issues that we are facing in terms of recovery. Clients are being advised to elevate their homes, flood insurance rates are sky high now, and people need guidance and direction on how to navigate the bureaucracy. It is important for AAFE CDF to be there because people in the community trust us. Our physical presence shows we are there for the long haul,” said Raquel Colon, senior housing counselor. 

Wade attended a Hope for Homeowners event
sponsored by NeighborWorks America,
Hope Now Alliance, Community
Development Corporation of Long Island

On Long Island, which has the largest number of FEMA applicants of all three areas, Community Development Corporation of Long Island’s Sandy Housing Recovery Program is working extensively in seven towns throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties. CDCLI is currently focused helping 143 clients to create individual plans to address their immediate and long term housing needs, and is making their full array of housing services available. Insurance and mortgage issues related to the storm are prevalent—49 of their current clients are also receiving help with these issues.  Amityville resident Harold Wade, who came to CDCLI at a Hope for Homeowners event, typifies many homeowners: “"I was under water in two ways, both from Sandy and financially," said Wade. "It’s a long road ahead but it’s my opportunity to start over again."