Neighborhoods


Strategic Neighborhood Transformation

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021

48 Owner-Occupied Home Repairs

20 Vacant Houses Boarded 

135 Yards of Debris Cleared

REVITALIZE

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Thrusday, March 4, 2020

On Wednesday, March 3, 2021, Youngstown City Council adopted the City of Youngstown Housing Conditions Analysis and Strategy to Improve Housing Conditions.

This caps a year of hard work by the City of Youngstown’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department, YSU’s Geography and Urban Regional Studies Program, and YNDC. The strategy was developed based on a citywide market analysis, rigorous local data analysis, and feedback from more than 1,700 residents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The purpose of the plan is to improve housing quality for all residents in the City of Youngstown and the primary strategies are as follows:

1.       Eliminate Abandoned Properties

2.       Effectively Regulate Rental Properties

3.       Address Nuisance Properties

4.       Properly Zone and Regulate Community Residences

5.       Assist Owner-Occupants with Home Repair

6.       Develop and Incentivize Homebuyers

7.       Encourage Development of New and Existing Housing

 

Implementation of the plan has already begun and the full document can be downloaded below. We look forward to sharing updates on progress in the months and years to come.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2021

On Monday, March 8, the Fibus Family Foundation awarded a $5,500 grant through the Youngstown Foundation Support Fund for YNDC’s emergency home repair program.

The funds will be used to assist low-income homeowners with emergencies such as furnace and plumbing repairs at no cost. Many thanks to the Fibus Family Foundation for the support!

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Wednesday. March 10, 2021

On Tuesday, March 9 YNDC demolished 2420 Glenwood Avenue.

The vacant and distressed commercial property was beyond revitalization and had to be demolished. The property will be greened and held for future reuse. 

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In an effort to improve housing quality for people living in Youngstown, several city groups are working together on a new housing conditions analysis that was just recently adopted by city council.

In a joint effort by the City of Youngstown’s Code Enforcement and Community Planning and Economic Development Departments, YSU’s Geography and Urban Regional Studies Program and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, a new Housing Conditions Analysis and Strategy report was released highlighting concerns about the city's housing properties.

"I don't think any of us want the city to continue and decline," said Ian Beniston, Executive Director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation. "We want it to grow. We want to stabilize the population."

To see the full story from WFMJ, click here.

The Housing Conditions and Strategy report is available for download below.

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Feedback from over 1,700 residents and stakeholders in the City of Youngstown led to a recently adopted plan to improve overall housing conditions.

Youngstown City Council adopted the plan last week. It’s a strategy to eliminate abandoned properties, regulate properties being rented and encourage residential development.

In a press release, city representatives detailed aspects of the plan developed after rigorous research and local data consumption.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

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Sophia Buggs, owner of Lady Buggs Farm and a Mahoning Valley Food Access coordinator, is working to aid food access and education in the Valley from the farm to the table.

 

Buggs, also known as Mama Sophia, was recently nominated for the League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown’s Women’s Hall of Fame for her efforts to revitalize the community. 

“I'm just a small woman farmer that really has a farm the size of a garden, [who’s] trying to make a big splash in the world,” she said. “To be recognized — and to be recognized with the women that are on the list, and I know most if not all of them — I’m very honored.” 

Additionally, Buggs was recognized as a community leader during the Habitat for Humanity Women Build Week from March 8 to 15. 

Buggs, who was born in Youngstown, moved to Florida at age 10. Although she’d travel back to the Mahoning Valley to visit family, she eventually settled in Florida and taught public speaking for film and recording arts at Full Sail University and was a breastfeeding peer counselor for the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program. 

“I think it was 2010 … I lost my grandmother and we brought her home to Youngstown to bury her. And that was the time that I knew that being at [my grandmother’s] house, I just knew I was coming back [to Youngstown]. It just so happened [that when] I went back to Florida, I was laid off both of my jobs,” Buggs said. 

“I took it as an opportunity to start all over,” Buggs added. “I came back home to the whole house and a whole other Youngstown.” 

While trying to adapt to her new normal, Buggs decided to bake her grandmother's homemade zucchini bread from scratch — which meant growing zucchini. 

The once flourishing garden Buggs remembered from her childhood was marred by gravel and pulled-up bushes. 

“So I decided to grow zucchini in some kiddie pools in the backyard,” she said. “ It was a great plant to learn. Then I decided to try my hands with some herbs. But by then, it was kind of catching on and people were like, ‘Oh, yeah, that lady is growing in kiddie pools in the backyard of the abandoned houses.”

“But I didn't know it was a thing. I didn't know urban agriculture as that name. I was just trying to save my own self and my own life, really. I didn't know that it was food justice, activism, social justice,” she added. “I didn't know that there was a thing called food insecurity, food sovereignty. I didn't know any of that. But doing the work, you fall into it, you know?”

Eventually, Buggs wanted to grow beyond her fence, so she went to Mahoning County Land Bank and developed plans to grow on nine lots backing up against her house — now known as Lady Buggs Farm. 

Lady Buggs Farm is a 1.3 acre urban farm on the South Side of Youngstown. Buggs said what produce she grows and where it’s available varies each season. This year, Lady Buggs Farm is growing herbs and edible flowers. 

In 2012, Buggs also entered an apprenticeship through Goodness Grows, which led to her spearheading gardening programs at Turning Point Residential. 

“Farming is small steps. You’ve got to clean up the space, first of all. You’ve got to better understand the ecosystem that you live in. You need to assess the neighborhood. You got to look at where the sun falls,” Buggs said.

Buggs told Mahoning Matters that when Goodness Grows couldn’t handle the capacity of what she needed through a full growing season, she began working with Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation at the start of its Iron Roots Urban Farm project in conjunction with Goodness Grows. Buggs received two Lots of Green grants from YNDC and a 2021 Youngstown Business Incubator small-business grant for $5,000 to aid in the development of Lady Buggs Farm. 

Through that relationship with YNDC, Buggs was encouraged to join AmeriCorps VISTA in 2015. 

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

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Tuesday, March 23, 2021

On Monday, March 22, 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. Many thanks to the First National Bank Community Foundation for their continued support!

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Filmed over the course of three years, The Place That Makes Us is an intimate and inspiring portrait of Youngstown, Ohio, a quintessential post-industrial American city seen through the efforts of a new generation of residents. 

Choosing not to abandon their hometown as so many have, these residents have stayed to rebuild the city and make a life for themselves.

Unlike their parents, haunted and traumatized by watching their way of life crumble around them, these young leaders and community activists grew up in the remains. Unbeholden to the memory of Youngstown’s heyday, they are able to envision a new future. Interweaving archival footage and home movies of a prosperous but forgone past, this film is a poetic testimony to the profound resilience and dedication it takes to change a community.

To see the full story from Bill Moyers, click here.

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Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Rondele bought his home from his cousin 3 years ago. He was in the process of restoring the home, but severe roof leaks caused significant damage throughout the home that hindered his progress.

With YNDC’s help, Rondele no longer has to worry about further damage to his home, and has now become even more motivated to finish his renovations. “It makes the house look brand new. Everybody that comes by says it looks like a brand new house. I appreciate everything you guys did. It has made me more motivated to keep working on the house. It has shown me that this house is really worth putting my time into,” Rondele said.