Missouri group revitalizes neighborhoods with mixed-income housing and urban orchards

When we hear about declining downtown districts beginning to become trendy again, it’s good news. But there’s usually a downside: As property values shoot up, affordable housing becomes scarce and low-income residents are pushed out.

That’s the challenge faced by Kansas City, MO. And the Westside Housing Organization – a NeighborWorks member celebrating the 40th anniversary of its founding this year – is determined to assure that affordable housing remains central to the downtown community’s identity.

Westside serves a primarily Latino population, a demographic that first began making its way to the city in the 1920s and ‘30s for jobs with the railroad, explains Executive Director Gloria Ortiz Fisher, whose own family emigrated from Mexico. The organization was founded in 1973 to lead residents’ fight against the loss of their homes to two new highways. Although they lost that struggle, Westside (named for the neighborhood on the west side of the city’s downtown district) developed into a strong local advocate for residents, and is today the only community development corporation in Kansas City for which a significant focus is Latinos.

As the railroad declined, so did the town’s economy, with the West Side’s working-class residents finding employment in restaurants, hotels and similar, small, service-based businesses. However, that all changed in 2009 when the Sprint Center – an indoor arena for concerts and other entertainment -- was built downtown, followed by a host of other attractions.

“The West Side is now a desirable place to live again,” says Fisher. “There are new businesses coming in and lots of creative artist types. Our focus is to make sure affordable, multi-family housing remains in the mix.”

Westside is headquartered
in a renovated firehouse,
rehabbed to green
standards.

Westside has long been in the business of developing affordable housing to nurture mixed-income neighborhoods. In the 1980s, Westside Housing began acquiring and rehabbing older apartment buildings in the neighborhood, and now has a portfolio of 165 rental units. The organization also facilitated the development of 120 new, affordable houses. Today, it is accelerating that work and hopes to double its rental units to 300. Meanwhile, Westside is eying an old high school, long since closed as young families left the urban core, which it would like to acquire for housing as well as community space. Energy-efficiency is emphasized during construction, both to keep residents’ utility bills low and continue its leadership role. (In December 2012, Westside was recognized as a NeighborWorks America Green Organization.)

“We operate with an average 98 percent occupancy,” says Fisher. “There is always a waiting list.”

Still, it’s a challenge, and many working-class families from the West Side neighborhood are moving to less-expensive homes to the historic northeast district. So, Westside has expanded to serve them, since an older community development corporation in that neighborhood had closed down.

Two residents of the neighborhood water
one of the orchard's trees.

“You can get a house there for $35,000, but there is a lot of crime, and 25 percent of the buildings are abandoned or vacant,” says Fisher. “It’s a good place for fearful immigrants to stay under the radar.”

To help prevent crime through greater community engagement, Westside is recruiting resident leaders to organize clean-ups, advocating for sidewalk construction, starting community gardens and partnering with the police department to implement a program called “Crime Prevention through Environmental Design,” including window repairs and the trimming of shrubs and trees that can hide illicit activity.

One of its more creative projects is an urban orchard designed to accomplish several goals – increase resident engagement (and thus discourage crime), encourage sustainable living and alleviate the “food desert” the area had become. In partnership with SkillsUSA (a nonprofit that trains students in vital job and leadership skills) and TimberlandPro (a footwear manufacturer), and with the help of neighborhood volunteers, Westside Housing planted a 2.5-acre orchard in an empty grass lot behind a community center. Nearly two years later, the orchard is home to more than 200 fruit trees and berry bushes. The trees and shrubbery help improve the poor urban air quality and mitigate storm water runoff, and Westside offers the fruit free for all residents.

“I don’t see broken windows when I walk through a community,” says Fisher. “I see opportunities.”

If you'd like to see for yourself the good work Westside Housing is doing, attend the NeighborWorks Training Institute in Kansas City, MO! At the Dec. 11 symposium, "Real-World Solutions for Community Transformation," one of the "mobile workshops" will be held at its facility.

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America. 

Wisconsin group to transform old armory to indoor farm staffed by returning vets

When NeighborWorks Green Bay (WI) bought 815 Chicago St. in 2002, the organization assumed it would rehabilitate the building, like the others it purchased, into multi-unit housing. What wasn’t known at the time, however, was that the building, an old armory that long ago served the needs of local military families, had 14-inch-thick cement slab floors that made the cost of redevelopment prohibitively expensive. So the building sat vacant, waiting for the day when it would be demolished.

Workers clear debris from the old armory.

Today, after the better part of a decade spent in a holding pattern, there is budding hope that the old armory will get its long-deserved rebirth. As part of a partnership between NeighborWorks Green Bay and local green agro-businesses, the old armory is being assessed for its potential as Green Bay’s first indoor farm. The idea sprouted after Noel Halvorsen, executive director of NeighborWorks Green Bay, participated in a local social-innovation leadership program and learned about creative urban farming projects around the country. Shortly thereafter, Halvorsen was contacted by local hydroponics specialists who also saw potential in the armory.

Research now is underway to
determine what crops would
grow best in the "Farmory."

When completed, the “Farmory” – as it has come to be known – will not only supply food locally throughout the year but will also operate as an agricultural learning center with a focus on training returning veterans.

“We think converting the armory back into service as a training center for military folks returning from overseas would be a great life for the building and an asset for the neighborhood,” Halvorsen says.. The project is undergoing rigorous business planning and analysis to test its feasibility and the results to date are promising. NeighborWorks Green Bay hopes in the next few months to have a full business plan and training curriculum in place, with construction well underway in 2014.

It is this kind of creative thinking that characterizes NeighborWorks Green Bay’s success in the northeast region of Wisconsin it serves. The organization, which is celebrating its 20th year as a member of the NeighborWorks network, started out as a small-scale local initiative that offered tool lending, homeownership preservation and small “scrape-and-paint” projects. Over the years, the geography it serves has grown, as has its local partnerships and programming.

For example, another creative local project that NeighborWorks Green Bay is spearheading is a volunteer time bank.  The time bank, led by a team that the organization sent to NeighborWorks America’s Community Leadership Institute two years ago, is an online system for recording and rewarding volunteer exchanges, enabling local “Samaritans” to capitalize on their skills. For example, one person can exchange an hour earned walking a neighbor’s dogs to get his or her home repainted. The plan received initial support from a CLI planning grant and is in a test phase this winter to evaluate the software platform. Next February, NeighborWorks Green Bay plans to launch it publicly in select neighborhoods before hopefully introducing it community-wide in the summer.

By bringing together unique local assets through innovative projects and programs, NeighborWorks Green Bay is building a better community.

Written by Lydia Wileden, program specialist for community stabilization at NeighborWorks America. 

Rhode Island group capitalizes on ethnic diversity to strengthen local economy

It was the late 1970s, and the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War, bringing an influx of refugees to the country. Providence, Rhode Island, was one of the early magnets for the stream of Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants, due in part to its central coastal location, relatively affordable cost of living and accessibility of support services.  With the economy slumping and redlining rampant, however, the community struggled to adapt.

“Integrating all of these new arrivals was a challenge at a time when our local economy was in a crisis,” recalls Sharon Conard-Wells, one of a group of volunteers who organized around the need to assure that affordable housing was available to everyone. “The federal government had just begun offering a zero-down payment program for new homeowners, so we mobilized to bring some of those funds to our city.”

Thus, the group that would become West Elmwood Housing Development was born – first just a loose, volunteer effort, then an official nonprofit in 1986 and finally, a charter member of NeighborWorks America in 1998 – making 2013 its 15th anniversary as a member of the network.

“I had seen the value that being a member of NeighborWorks America brought to an organization,” recalls Conard-Wells, who later became the group’s executive director. “Knowing how politics works was enough to get us money, but NeighborWorks America affiliation offered two other benefits money can’t buy – professional development, and a national network that broadens your base. I wanted that for West Elmwood.”

Hub for immigrants

The “West End” community of Providence, which the organization primarily serves, has changed in many ways since those early years – including a slight decline in residents from 14,186 in 2000 to 13,844 in 2010. But what has continued to grow is its cultural diversity. Fifty-seven percent of its residents today are Hispanic, 18 percent are black, 11 percent are Asian and 32 percent are “other” or a combination. What is even more defining about the community is that nearly 40 percent of West End residents were born outside of the United States (compared to just 13 percent across the state and nationwide).  According to the Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, the influx of refugees over time has shifted from Southeast Asians and Liberians to (in the last five years) a more diverse mix from Bhutan, Burma, Central Africa (Congo, Central African Republic and Burundi), East Africa (Ethiopia and Eritrea) and Iraq. Two-thirds of the residents speak a language other than English at home.

That reality about the community it serves has led West Elmwood in some innovative directions in its quest to serve its constituents. One of its current initiatives is called the Sankofa Project – named for a word from Ghana that means, literally, “go back (to the past) and get it.” For the West End community, that means capitalizing on residents’ family and cultural backgrounds to solve local problems.  

“For example, residents of the West End community currently have limited access to affordable, fresh, culturally desirable foods,” explains Rachel Newman Greene, director of partnerships and community projects. “In fact, I’d call West End a food desert. There is no full-service supermarket, and while there is a farmer’s market, it’s not affordable and doesn't cater to an ethnically diverse population.”

Food desert to cultural marketplace

The goal of the Sankofa Project is to fill that gap, while also providing a source of local income. The centerpiece of the project is the transformation of 30,000 square feet of land into a mixed-use development featuring: 

• affordable rental housing  (50 one- to three-bedroom units).

• an agricultural space that includes both community gardens and small farms/microbusinesses. 

• a “world market” with booths for selling the agricultural goods as well as crafts, tailored clothing and other locally made products.

• a community building.

Garmei Mawolo (left), originally from Liberia, and another
 gardener sell their produce at one of West Elmwood's farmers’
markets. They are selling (from left to right) sour leaf
 (red sorrel), habanero peppers, Malabar (water) spinach,
squash tendrils and leaf amaranth (m’chicha).

“I don’t know of any other organizations that have a project like this on such a large, contiguous space,” says Angie Bannerman, chair of the committee in charge of the initiative and a West End resident for 36 years. 

Identifying and acquiring that much vacant land is a challenge in the Northeast, and in the beginning of its work, the organization focused on individual lots on which it renovated old buildings for offices or lofts, converted them into community gardens or leased them out for small farmers’ markets. However, the West End community was “blessed” by stretches of formerly industrial properties, now abandoned, and over time it was able to gradually acquire the property for the ambitious Sankofa Project with the help of a state land bank. 

 “We’re designing this to be the main social focus of the community – a gathering place that will feel familiar to immigrants who come from more market-based cultures, while also improving their diets and developing entrepreneurial sources of income by attracting people from throughout the city and state,”  says Greene.  

Phase 1 of the project, a small tree farm, already is funded and complete. Phase 2, now underway, encompasses rented lots for planting, including two greenhouses, and a seasonal farmers’ market designed to begin establishing a customer base. The rest of the agricultural and market development will follow, and the final, fourth stage will be the housing (targeted for completion in the spring of 2015). 

“Of course, we offer a lot of other services, such as financial counseling and programs for youth that use hip hop to encourage self-esteem,” says Conard-Wells. “The constant is our commitment to recognizing and celebrating their diversity, and sticking with them for the long term. So, for instance, when residents complete our homebuyer education programs, we don’t give them a graduation certificate. We give them a ‘friend-for-life’ certificate.”

Has Spring Sprung in Your Community?

The 100^th Anniversary of the Cherry Blossoms marks another start to Spring in the Nation’s capitol, and the warmer weather is a chance for us to get out and green our communities. Several NeighborWorks Network members are already hard at work infusing sustainability into community development.

Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C.

New Kensington CDC’s Sustainable 19125 aims to make 19125 the greenest zip code in Philadelphia. Their blog offers some information about all topics green and sustainable, like this one about a community compost. 

Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland shared this Cleveland.com rain garden article on how to make your own rain garden. These beautiful, yet functional, green spaces can help prevent water pollution and homeowners may be able to take tax credits from them. 

Argenta Community Development Corporation created the Vestal Urban Farming Project in North Little Rock, AR. You can learn more about this sustainable community-based food system, and see videos, in the recent Today’s THV news feature on the first urban farm in North Little Rock.

To learn about other great “Spring greening” ideas, visit the NeighborWorks Organizations Green Efforts page and your idea on Neighborworks Facebook and Twitter channels.