Neighborhoods

In developing a strategy to improve Youngstown’s housing, people were asked what is the most significant housing issue facing Youngstown today?”

The response, included in a final report, includes these comments: “rentals, group homes, slum lords, property values are so low, school system bad, taxes don’t compare to quality of life.”

Youngstown City Council approved the final report three weeks ago. Now it’s time to put it to use.

Councilwoman Basia Adamczak took a walk along Inverness Avenue with First News anchor Stan Boney. She says it is “one of the more stable neighborhoods in the 7th Ward.”

She points to the one and only lot within three blocks where a vacant house was torn down. Today, the neighborhood is stable.

“However, it is, unfortunately, almost at that tipping point where we have to try to fix some of the issues and concerns,” Adamczak said.

Adamczak brought with her the 140-page report outlining Youngstown’s Strategy to Improve Housing Conditions.

“I like that there’s now a plan rather than just demolishing houses. Also, save houses and also help those that have code enforcement issues,” she said.

Ian Beniston runs the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, which had a lot of input in the housing report.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

“The Place That Makes Us,” a documentary that looks at Youngstown residents who are trying to make the city better, will premiere at 8 p.m. March 30 on the WORLD Channel and worldchannel.org.

The film will also stream on amdoc.org, LinkTV.org , PBS.org and the PBS app and air later in the week on Link TV (DirecTV 375 and Dish Network 9410). An article about the film that was published before its premiere details how the filmmaker came to be interested in Youngstown.

Filmed over the course of three years by Karla Murthy, the documentary is an intimate and inspiring portrait of Youngstown. It is seen through the efforts of a new generation of residents who have chosen not to abandon their hometown, but to stay, rebuild and make a life for themselves.

Among the subjects are Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., and Julius Oliver, first ward councilman.

To see the full story from After Hours Youngstown, click here.

In developing a strategy to improve Youngstown’s housing, people were asked what is the most significant housing issue facing Youngstown today?”

The response, included in a final report, includes these comments: “rentals, group homes, slum lords, property values are so low, school system bad, taxes don’t compare to quality of life.”

Youngstown City Council approved the final report three weeks ago. Now it’s time to put it to use.

Councilwoman Basia Adamczak took a walk along Inverness Avenue with First News anchor Stan Boney. She says it is “one of the more stable neighborhoods in the 7th Ward.”

She points to the one and only lot within three blocks where a vacant house was torn down. Today, the neighborhood is stable.

“However, it is, unfortunately, almost at that tipping point where we have to try to fix some of the issues and concerns,” Adamczak said.

Adamczak brought with her the 140-page report outlining Youngstown’s Strategy to Improve Housing Conditions.

“I like that there’s now a plan rather than just demolishing houses. Also, save houses and also help those that have code enforcement issues,” she said.

Ian Beniston runs the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, which had a lot of input in the housing report.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

WORLD Channel may need to change the name of its documentary series “America ReFramed” to “Mahoning Valley ReFramed.”

Last week, the series featured a documentary on the closing of the General Motors Lordstown plant and the impact on its workers and their families. This Tuesday at 8 p.m. the program takes a look at the younger generation of Youngstown residents working to revitalize their hometown with “The Place That Makes Us.”

It is the documentary feature debut of Karla Murthy, who has worked as a producer, camera operator and correspondent for various PBS news magazines over the last 15 years.

It was a PBS assignment that first brought the Brooklyn, N.Y., resident to the area, and what she found didn’t fit the narrative that normally accompanies national media coverage of the area. One of the places she was taken by Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, was the waterfall by Lanterman’s Mill in Mill Creek MetroParks.

“This is incredible. You can live near this beauty of Mill Creek Park? That was the first thing that really shocked me,” Murthy said.

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

The Place That Makes Us is a look at Youngstown, Ohio, through the eyes of a number of young people who have bucked the trend of “getting out” and decided to stay in their hometown and fight for it.

It gives a snapshot into the personal and work lives—and the often-blurry lines between them—of a couple of staff members at the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, a business owner who also became a city council member, and a city staffer who works on codes and demolition.

Youngstown is, possibly even more than Detroit, a place that is familiar to much of the country only for its struggles, ever since the mass steel mill closures began there in the 1970s. The Place That Makes Us walks an interesting line regarding this. It intentionally avoids the kind of “ruin porn” that dramatizes decay and often leaves residents of the place depicted angry at how they’ve been stigmatized and pigeonholed. But the film also doesn’t ignore the past and its effects on the present. Indeed, the archival footage from Youngstown at its heyday interwoven with interviews that encompass residents who remember it and those who don’t, but whose childhoods were deeply affected by the ripple effects, leaves the viewer with a powerful sense of just how long the effects of such a shock linger in a place.

To see the full story from Shelter Force, click here.

Activists and leaders eager to revitalize Youngstown are portrayed in a new documentary film as low-key heroes fighting for the future of a city they love.

“The Place That Makes Us,’' directed by Karla Murthy, debuts tonight at 8 p.m. on WORLD Channel and streams on worldchannel.org. The 69-minute film can also be streamed on the American Documentary, Inc. site, amdoc.org, LinkTV.org, PBS.org and on the PBS app.\

The documentary gives viewers an intimate look at the house-by-house battle waged by members of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation to salvage portions of a Northeast Ohio city hollowed out by white flight, sprawl, and globalization that killed much of its job base decades ago.

To see the full story from Cleveland.com, click here.

Wednesday, March 30, 2021

As part of a coordinated effort to implement the City of Youngstown Strategy to Improve Housing Conditions, Youngstown's Rental Registration Department is seeking qualified applicants to conduct rental housing inspections.

The purpose of conducting these inspections is to improve the quality of rental housing citywide, especially for Youngstown's most vulnerable residents. Individuals/firms will be responsible for completing interior and exterior inspections of rental properties as assigned by the City of Youngstown. 

Interested parties can download the RFP from the link below and follow the included instructions in order to apply. 

Cities devastated by industrial closures should never be written off for dead.

“The Place That Makes Us” looks at a handful of people trying to revitalize Youngstown, Ohio, where the shuttering of steel mills led to an exodus of residents, a rash of vacant homes and an ebb of civic engagement.

To see the full story from The New York Times, click here.

"I didn't know the Youngstown my Father did, flooded with people..."

It's a look at Youngstown many have never seen before.

"I thought it would make such a great film to spend more time and to really see the work that people are doing and see their lives unfold and I think that's a different story than the rest of the country is used to seeing about Youngstown," says Karla Murthy, the director of 'The Place That Makes Us.'

Karla Murthy says she spent the next 2 to 3 years compiling stories and following the day-to-day of those working at the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.

To see the full story from WFMJ, click here.

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Federal regulations at 24 CFR, Part 91 require the City of Youngstown, Ohio (the City) to prepare and submit an Annual Action Plan (AAP) for its housing and community development programs.

Notice is hereby given by the City that it has prepared its proposed FY 2021 AAP. The FY 2021 AAP outlines how the City intends to expend $3,522,132 in federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program funds, $694,297 in HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program funds, and $303,238 in Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program funds. The City will also receive a total of $310,869 in federal CDBG-CV funds to help address the needs caused by the on-going pandemic. The City anticipates using these funds for food delivery and for the local food bank to provide assistance to those in need.

In order to obtain the views of citizens, public agencies, and other interested parties, the City has placed its proposed FY 2021 AAP on public display for 30 days on the City’s website (https://youngstownohio.gov/ and in the City’s Community Development Division office beginning on April 1, 2021.
Public comments on the proposed FY 2021 AAP can be directed to Ms. Beverly Hosey, via email at: blhosey@YoungstownOhio.gov or by sending written comments to Ms. Beverly Hosey, City of Youngstown, Community Development Division, City Hall, 4th Floor, 26 S. Phelps Street, Youngstown, OH 44503. All comments must be received by the City no later than May 3, 2021 at 5:00 pm.

The FY 2021 AAP contains the following major components:
1. Identification of federal and non-federal resources reasonably expected to be made available during the FY 2021 program year to undertake activities identified in the approved Five-Year Consolidated Plan for FY 2020-2024.

2. A list of activities to be undertaken during the FY 2021 program year to address community development and housing needs, including the geographic distribution of activities to be completed.

3. Identification of homeless and special needs activities to be undertaken during the FY 2021 annual program period to address identified needs within the City.

The proposed uses of funds for FY 2021 were developed after holding a public needs meeting in January and the review of funding requests from local organizations identifying needs.
Notice is hereby given that the City of Youngstown will hold a second virtual public meeting on the FY 2021 proposed Annual Plan via Zoom on Tuesday April 20, 2021 at 5:30 pm. The call-in information for this virtual meeting is as follows:

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/99359196057?pwd=eFZJOTY0a1NuZlBpZWp0dWM4MTRuZz09
Meeting ID: 993 5919 6057
Passcode: 770562
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Persons interested in the use of the above identified funding sources are encouraged to attend the final virtual public meeting and provide oral or written testimony. Persons requiring special accommodations can make arrangements by contacting the Community Development Division Director, Community Planning and Economic Development, City Hall- 4th Floor, 26 S. Phelps St., Youngstown, OH 44503, Phone: (330) 744-1708.

  
City Council is expected to act on the proposed FY 2021 AAP on May 5, 2021 at a Council meeting at 5:30 pm. The final FY 2021 AAP will be submitted to HUD for review and approval on or before May 14, 2021.

A draft of The City of Youngstown 2021 Annual Action Plan can be downloaded below.