Neighborhoods

Friday. December 20, 2019

Since the completion of the Pleasant Grove Neighborhood Action Plan in October of 2014 aggressive efforts have been underway to stabilize Helena Avenue and the surrounding neighborhood.

The progress on Helena Avenue since the completion of the action plan includes the following:

• Demolition of nine vacant and abandoned properties;
• Renovation of seven vacant units including the renovation of a historic three unit building constructed in 1910;
• Code enforcement compliance achieved at five properties; Home repair assistance provided to multiple homeowners;
• Greening of multiple lots and creation of sidelots for homeowners;
• and Construction of three awesome new homes.

Taken together these results have eliminated abandoned properties, significantly increased investment in housing quality, and improved the quality of life on Helena Avenue. The work on the street and in the neighborhood is ongoing and continues to address challenges and improve the neighborhood. These results are not possible without the work of many partners including: Helena Avenue Residents, Handels Neighborhood Association, Mahoning County Land Bank, City of Youngstown, PNC Bank, Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, National Community Stabilization Trust, Greenheart Companies, and others.

Friday, December 20, 2019

On Thursday, December 19, 2019, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation was awarded a $750,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh’s Affordable Housing Program to rehabilitate twenty owner-occupied homes in the City of Youngstown.

PNC is the member bank supporting YNDC’s application and partnering on the project. Many thanks to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, PNC, the City of Youngstown, and all of our community partners that made this project possible!

Tara Walker-Pollock is like many young professionals who left the area to pursue career dreams in a bigger city. And like many young professionals, she returned with experiences and the belief that there’s opportunity in Youngstown.

“It wasn’t like I had to leave, but I just didn’t see an opportunity for me here at that time,” she says. “But I knew I wanted to come back and contribute to where I was from.”

She graduated from Campbell High School and headed to Kentucky, where she had family, to go to college. Walker-Pollock received a baccalaureate in communications from the University of Louisville. She wanted to pursue a career in journalism and an opportunity for an internship at a magazine took her to New York City. 

Dennis Pollock grew up in Harlem. He used to ride subway trains, finding music on every street corner and a variety of life that’s open 24/7.

Walker-Pollock’s roommate in New York happened to go to high school with Pollock. “There was a connection right from the start,” Pollock says.  

After graduating from high school, he wanted to produce music. While pursuing that dream he had several other jobs, but ended up living with his mother in Maryland.

“That was not the place where I wanted to be in my life,” Pollock says. But job prospects weren’t much better in Maryland when the stock market collapsed, and he wanted to take his relationship with his would-be wife further. So he decided to enlist in the Army. 

“It was one of those decisions I felt would just help out all around. The military would help me and help me be a better man for her,” he says. 

The couple married in September 2001 and Pollock deployed to Afghanistan in October. He was a communications specialists working on radios and computers and spent a year overseas. During that time, his wife moved back with family in Youngstown.

While home she was deciding on what to do with her career and wanted to pursue graduate school online. Her first thought was to study urban planning. “One thing that drew me to the idea of urban planning was that the cost of living in New York City is sky high, and the process of trying to find an affordable, nice place to live was something that was interesting to me,” she says. 

“Seeing gentrification up close and personal is something that just kind of drew me. I wanted to see how can I contribute to that field,” Walker-Pollock says. 

Exploring her options, she learned about Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and she sought an internship. “That experience opened my eyes to the opportunities that were here and to build on what they were doing,” she says. She received her degree in economic and community development. 

To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here. 

Friday, December 20, 2019

On Saturday, December 14, 2019, Dough House Cookies opened a cookie shop in the Billingsgate Avenue kitchen building on YNDC's neighborhood revitalization campus.

Dough House Cookies is the brainchild of TaRee J. Avery, owner and operator of southern startup, The Nashville Cookie Bar. With Dough House, TaRee decided to relocate back to her hometown in Northeast, Ohio, change the company's name and continue her mission to blend the traditional flavors she was raised on with new flavor combinations she has come to know and love. From Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Raisin to Brown Butter Blueberry and Lavender Lemon, Dough House Cookies is giving the old a new spin & bringing big flavors to the local cookie scene. Specializing in small batch orders, event catering, and custom cookie buffets.

Please stop by and support our newest neighborhood business. More info can be found here: http://doughhousecookies.com/

Monday, December 23, 2019

On Monday, December 23, the Walter and Caroline Watson Foundation awarded a $15,967 grant to support the emergency repair program.

The emergency repair program provides critical housing repair services to low income homeowners. Many thanks to the Walter and Caroline Watson Foundation for their support!

Monday, December 23, 2019

On Monday, December 23, the Schwebel Family Foundation awarded YNDC with a $1,000 grant to support YNDC’s work to revitalize Youngstown neighborhoods.

Many thanks to the Schwebel Family Foundation for their support of YNDC! REVITALIZE.

 A property management company out of South Carolina that was allegedly using fraudulent contracts to get people to buy uninhabitable houses in Youngstown has finally agreed to settle.

In October 2018, Community Legal Aid Services sued Vision Property Management for selling what it called illegal contracts for dilapidated houses.

Earlier this week, Legal Aid received the settlement check of $260,000.

“Oh, I mean, we’re ecstatic. I mean, this was a great outcome,” said Legal Aid executive director Steve McGarrity.

Youngstown legal group steps up to offer land contract help for free

The issues with Vision Property date back to 2017, when allegations first surfaced that the company was buying and selling dilapidated houses in the city of Youngstown under what Legal Aid claimed were illegal lease-to-own contracts.

“They engaged in really slimy tactics to get people to sign these contracts thinking that they were going to get the dream of homeownership and really, what they were ending up with was a financial nightmare,” McGarrity said.

The settlement involves nine homeowners for a total of $260,000. Each homeowner will receive between $5,000 and $50,000.

“We went into mediation and were able to settle the case for our clients and restore our clients all the money that they lost in the case plus some additional funds to them,” McGarrity said.

When the allegations against Vision Property became public, groups like the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation put pressure on the company to stop. They even traveled to South Carolina to protest outside the homes of the people running Vision Property.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

A new study reveals a wide opportunity gap for children of different races in the Youngstown area. 

Of the country’s 100 largest metro areas, Youngstown-Warren-Boardman ranks the lowest in terms of opportunity for black children on the Child Opportunity Index 2.0. Opportunity for black children in Youngstown was scored at 3 out of 100, compared to white children in Youngstown, whose opportunity was scored at 50.  

The index, recently featured in an NPR article, is compiled from various factors including poverty rate, education quality and pollution, said Dr. Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, director of the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy at Brandeis University, which originally created the index in 2014.  

Ohio is very striking, said Acevedo-Garcia, in terms of “very high inequities.” Of the 10 metro areas that scored lowest in terms of opportunity for black children, four were in Ohio: Youngstown, Toldeo, Dayton and Cleveland. 

"I think it's a very consistent pattern that some of the areas in Ohio show some of the largest gaps in terms of the difference between very high and very low opportunity neighborhoods, but also in terms of racial inequities," said Acevedo-Garcia. 

Housing is a key determinant in success, from the effects of lead paint to the trauma of growing up in a place that does not afford warmth or safety. 

"All of those things taken together, it's difficult to catch up when you start in that type of condition," said Ian Beniston, executive director of Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation. 

To see the full story from MahoningMatters, click here.

A real-estate management company accused of fraud and predatory sales practices in Youngstown settled a lawsuit for $260,300 with Community Legal Aid, a nonprofit legal entity that represented nine city residents in the case. 

Vision Property Management, based in Columbia, S.C., settled the lawsuit without admitting guilt.

The nine residents will receive between $5,000 and $50,000 each.

To see the full story from The Vindicator, click here.

Monday, December 30, 2019

In December 2019 Vision Property Management settled a lawsuit with Community Legal Aid for $260,300. The settlement will benefit nine residents who were targeted by Vision Property Management's predatory practices.

The City of Youngstown also reached a settlement for $65,000.The predatory practices of Vision Property Management in the City of Youngstown were first documented by ACTION, YNDC, and neighborhood groups beginning in the winter of 2016. The groups worked together to organize residents, vendees, and other impacted persons on a multi year campaign that included: a receivership action on a Vision Property Management owned property, a bus trip to Vision Property Management's corporate office and homes of their executives in South Carolina in March 2018, postcards sent to their executives homes, continued partnerships with local media to highlight the impact of their predatory practices, introduction of state legislation by State Representative Michele Lepore-Hagan to address predatory land contracts, passage of a city ordinance by Youngstown City Council in February 2019, and partnership with Community Legal Aid to assist impacted vendees and lessees targeted by Vision Property Management which culminated in reaching a successful settlement as a result of the lawsuit against Vision Property Management. Big thanks to everyone that participated in this effort!