Neighborhoods

Thursday, March 12, 2020

The Youngstown Housing Task Force met Tuesday night to discuss the next steps the group will take to address housing quality issues affecting Youngstown's neighborhoods.

The group reviewed an analysis of problem landlords prepared by Neighborhood Planner Tom Hetrick to begin planning next steps in its Landlord Accountability campaign, and reviewed progress toward addressing neglect in Youngstown's group homes and proposed policy changes as part of its Quality Group Homes campaign. Additionally, the Task Force voted to take a stand against new rule changes regarding the Community Reinvestment Act that would allow banks to legally redline neighborhoods and to ask our public officials to do the same. The Task Force will also send letters to U.S. Senators Brown and Portman encouraging them to support a bill that would add protections against the use of predatory land contracts in neighborhoods across the country.

Thursday, March 12, 2020

On Thursday, March 12, the John and Doris Andrews Memorial Fund awarded $5,000 to YNDC's neighborhood cleanup program.

The funds will be used for solid tires and a grapple for the skid steer, so that small demolitions can be safely completed. Many thanks to the John and Doris Andrews Memorial Fund for the support!

Friday, March 13, 2020

 On Friday, March 13, the Fibus Family Foundation awarded a $5,500 grant for YNDC’s Neighborhood Cleanup Team.

The Neighborhood Cleanup Team is a coordinated effort that engages program staff, AmeriCorps national service participants, and community volunteers to address critical housing and safety issues in the neighborhoods of Youngstown, Ohio. This program involves three primary components: 1) cleaning up and boarding up abandoned properties to reduce crime and restore a basic sense of order and dignity to neighborhoods, 2) cleaning up, grading, and planting grass on overgrown vacant lots (where houses have been demolished) so that they can be sustainably maintained by YNDC or adjacent neighbors, and 3) demolishing collapsing or failing detached garages which present serious safety hazards for children and families in need.  All aspects of the program align with priorities set forth in resident-driven neighborhood plans and are activities that address unmet needs in Youngstown’s neighborhoods. Many thanks to the Fibus Family Foundation for the support!

Friday, March 13, 2020

On Friday, March 13, The Youngstown Foundation Awarded YNDC a $30,000 grant to revitalize the first floor of 1810 Volney Road as a Neighborhood Action Center to provide public meeting and gathering space for Youngstown residents working to organize together to improve their neighborhoods.

The funding will be used to update the mechanical systems, complete first floor finish work, improve the outdoor meeting space and parking. Huge thanks to The Youngstown Foundation for their support of this project!

To see the full story from WFMJ, click here.

A team of 10 from the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps is in Youngstown to assist the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation and the city with neighborhood cleanup projects for the next six weeks.

The projects will include cleaning and boarding up vacant homes and demolishing collapsed garages at occupied homes on Youngstown’s West Side.

YNDC said it is the first organization in Youngstown to host an Americorps NCCC team. The team is staying at Martin Luther Lutheran Church on the South Side.

“We’re very excited to host the team,” Jack Daugherty, YNDC neighborhood stabilization director, said.

“AmeriCorps NCCC has been an asset to our organization and our city. They help us to get more done to revitalize Youngstown’s neighborhoods than we can do on our own.”

Daugherty said YNDC also is grateful to the church for housing the team and the Youngstown Parks Department for providing it with access to recreational facilities.

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

Thursday, March 19, 2020

On Wednesday, March 18, the First National Bank Community Foundation awarded YNDC with a $10,000 grant for Housing Counseling.

The Housing Counseling Program empowers low- to moderate-income residents to identify and overcome barriers to homeownership, including inadequate savings, income, credit history, and understanding of the home buying process, and prepare them for future homeownership; and to provide existing low- to moderate-income homeowners with resources to maximize their limited incomes and minimize repair costs so that they can avoid foreclosure and improve their living conditions. Thanks to the First National Bank Community Foundation for their support!

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Mercy Health Foundation has sidestepped the usual hurdles to approve a $1 million emergency grant to address regular care needs as well as those related to the crisis.

“This means there are relatively few restrictions and that funds can address almost any need,” Maraline Kubic, Mercy Health’s director of annual programs and community outreach, said in a statement. “Requests can be for anything that will help patients, clients or staff — virtually anything that will help improve care, improve access to care and make it easier for Mercy’s frontline staff to deliver care.”

Specifically, the fast-tracked funds will enhance support for Mercy Health’s existing programs to help the most vulnerable populations and those likely to be most impacted by the crisis, noted Paul Homick, foundation president.

Similarly, they will go toward supporting essential and emergency capital needs as a health care system to respond to the most urgent needs related to the coronavirus situation, Homick said.

A third priority is to provide essential assistance to frontline personnel who also could be subjected to contracting the virus, Homick continued.

Earlier this week, the foundation expedited $66,500 of the grant to enhance its vegetable and produce prescription program, which targets mainly people with chronic diseases by providing them with healthful foods. Because of the coronavirus crisis, the funds were approved almost immediately, as opposed to within a few months, Homick explained.

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

Monday, March 23, 2020

On Friday, March 20, the Ruth Beecher Charitable Trust awarded $5,000 to YNDC for improvement of YNDC neighborhood cleanup program facilities and equipment.

The funds will be used to make improvements to YNDC’s neighborhood clean up facility at 45 Oneta Street. Many thanks to the Ruth Beecher Charitable Trust for the support!

Legacy cities across the country are dealing with the ramifications of decades of industrial decline and suburbanization without population growth.

 They have experienced, and many continue to experience, population and job losses, which have left them with crumbling infrastructure, widespread vacancy and abandonment, and environmental contamination (PDF). Confronting these issues requires creative thinking from local government and civic, business, and community leaders. Although policymakers and scholars generally pay more attention to larger legacy cities (think Detroit, Baltimore, and Philadelphia), small to midsize cities are also laboratories for innovation. City governments in Erie, Pennsylvania; Syracuse, New York; Flint, Michigan; and many other cities are developing a wide range of green and sustainable initiatives, adopting and implementing plans, programs, projects, and policies that city officials hope will remediate contaminated land, add more trees and green space, improve water quality, increase energy efficiency, and combat climate change.

Green and sustainable initiatives can be especially attractive to small and midsize legacy cities for several reasons:

• Their history of industrialization has left them with polluted sites and waterways that need environmental remediation, repair, and rehabilitation.
• Many of these cities used to have strong local economies but have shed jobs and people over the past several decades. As a result, they need to attract new residents and investment to grow and remain competitive. Green and sustainable initiatives can help arrest further decline and induce people to return.
• The impact of legacy city’s decline disproportionately affected many of their low-income residents, including people of color and those facing lead issues, substandard housing, and less access to green space, clean water, and safe homes.

To learn how small to midsize legacy cities have incubated green and sustainable projects, our research team inventoried (or “greenventoried”) initiatives in cities that have lost a substantial share of their population (about 15 to 20 percent from their midcentury peak) and have fewer than 300,000 residents. Our greenventory included cities as small as Dubuque, Iowa, (58,000 people) to cities as large as Buffalo, New York, (250,000 people).

Based on that research, four key themes emerged:

1. Small to midsize cities pursue a host of environmental programs.

Although these cities face a range of challenges, they are not sitting idly by. Our initial scan of only publicly available materials turned up more than 100 programs, plans, policies, and projects in 43 cities across the Northeast, the Midwest, and the South, all with an extreme breadth of activities. We found many initiatives to expand green infrastructure (PDF) and combat climate change, as well as activities focused on water quality, energy efficiency, solid waste, food policy, transportation, and the green economy.

The scope of projects varies widely as well. At one end of the spectrum are small, self-contained programs, such as the City of Rochester’s addition of a green roof and permeable parking lot to their city hall. Cities also have programs that are small in scale but part of ongoing initiatives, such as funds to support community gardens or help with energy efficient upgrades. At the other end are massive undertakings designed to address major infrastructure changes. In Buffalo, for example, the sewer authority has launched several programs to reduce stormwater runoff and improve water quality. The city is providing support to community groups to increase permeable surfaces and has launched a multiyear demolition program to remove hazardous properties and give them a “green treatment.”

1. Small to midsize legacy cities can leverage significant natural assets for sustainable redevelopment.

Many legacy cities are located along rivers and major bodies of water (such as the Great Lakes) that have facilitated the movement of goods and people or supported factories and industry. Over time, these bodies of water became severely polluted (think the Cuyahoga River fires). Instead of treating them as a liability, many cities have found ways to leverage their natural beauty to turn them into productive assets and have designed strategies around cleaning up polluted rivers. In Wilmington, Delaware, for example, the city has converted the formerly polluted land along the Christina River into revitalized urban space and parkland, going so far as to replant native species.

1. Green and sustainable thinking are shaping cities’ revitalization and redevelopment strategies.

Small and midsize legacy cities are similar to their larger peers in that they have significant redevelopment needs stemming from their large numbers of vacant and abandoned properties. Many cities have found success using green thinking to address issues of vacancy and abandonment. The clearest example is cities converting vacant land into parks and community space. Greening vacant lots can help stabilize neighborhoods and encourage private investment. In Flint, for example, the city updated its zoning code (PDF) to allow for community gardens, urban agriculture, and increased green space in certain low- and medium-density neighborhoods. Cities are also finding that redevelopment offers the opportunity to add green or sustainable elements to a project. The revitalization of the Grand Rapids Downtown Market, for example, includes substantial green infrastructure projects such as LEED buildings, rooftop greenhouses, rain gardens, and geothermal wells.

1. Regional and local nonprofit organizations and institutions are partnering with smaller cities to provide additional capacity and assistance.

Small cities primarily differ from their larger peers in their fiscal health and staff capacity to carry out programs. Even in our limited dataset, we found that the larger the city, the more activities and the greater variety in activities. Larger cities were more likely to have sustainability offices or similar agencies that could provide leadership, set goals, and help coordinate initiatives among different departments and collaborate with regional and local partners. Although there were some outliers Binghamton, New York, with less than 50,000 people, had a lot of activity some of the very small cities have only one or two people working on sustainability issues.

However, the nonprofit sector can help cities partially overcome municipal capacity challenges. In Youngstown, Ohio, for example, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation launched an initiative to repurpose vacant lots in the city’s Idora neighborhood. Another example is Ball State University’s ecoREHAB program that works in partnership with the City of Muncie, Indiana, and Habitat for Humanity to rehabilitate homes.

To see the full story from Housing Matters, click here.