Neighborhoods

Monday, February 26, 2024. 

On February 15, 2024, the Mahoning County Commissioners approved an agreement between YNDC and the Mahoning County Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control Department to provide $800,000 in Lead Safe Ohio funding to YNDC. The funding will be used to make lead safe improvements to housing units in the City of Youngstown.

Huge thanks to the Mahoning County Commissioners and Mahoning County Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control Department!

As the prices for almost everything go up, the average American’s confidence in successfully owning a home one day is decreasing. “If anyone is in the market for buying a house, you’ll realize how difficult it is and how expensive it is. Home prices and mortgage rates have both gone up. For anyone to be able to afford a house in Ohio, it’s really difficult,” said Ohio Treasurer of State Robert Sprague. FINDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING Access to affordable housing means the price of renting your space takes up around 30% of your income each year. That means not all of your paycheck goes to housing; there’s 70% left over for utilities, health bills, food, gas, leisure, savings, and everything in between. 

Alex Viglio is a housing counselor with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.

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

Grace Persing is a Neighborhood Steward for the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation. Grace assists YNDC’s Neighborhood Stabilization Director to mobilize residents and stakeholders to take collective action to improve citywide housing quality and neighborhood conditions and help to develop and support neighborhood leaders.

Grace can be reached at gpersing@yndc.org.

In Cleveland’s Central neighborhood, traffic whizzes by on Central Avenue, a street dotted with businesses. If you glance down any of the side streets, you’ll see rows of homes. One thing that’s hard to find, however - trees. Cleveland-native Samira Malone grew up in this neighborhood. She has many fond memories, but she says even as a young girl, she knew there was something missing. “One of the things that always just alarmed me was the fact that there were it was so gray, everything was so gray and brown and built out and very little refuge for, being connected to the environment and Earth.” Malone calls herself a professional tree hugger. She’s director of the Cleveland Tree Coalition, a collaborative urban forestry organization that partners with the city. Through the coalition, Malone works to find ways to reestablish the Forest City’s connection to its roots.

Trees can reduce risk of asthma and cardiovascular disease, and can improve mental health, Malone said. Tree canopy can also cool down communities, driving down utility costs at home. An ideal, healthy baseline for canopy is about 30%, she said, but Cleveland’s numbers are closer to 18%. “If you look at any redlining map, historical policy and practice -- especially disinvestment in Black and brown communities -- is a direct correlation to why there is a disproportionately low tree canopy in Black and brown neighborhoods, primarily concentrated on the east side of Cleveland,” Malone said. The city is currently planting between 3,000 and 5,000 trees each year, Malone said, but meeting the city’s 30% goal will take 28,000 trees and upwards of $100 million.

In Northeast Ohio, a region where growth was driven by its once-booming industrial sector, canopy loss is commonplace. In places like Youngstown, residents know the feeling of lacking trees all too well. Jack Daugherty is the neighborhood stabilization director for the Mahoning Valley TreeCorps. “Our city is struggling to keep after that problem because it's such a big one,” he said. “There are thousands of trees, mature tree lawn trees that are dead or dying and are falling, and that's created a big frustration for folks in their neighborhoods.”

To read the full story from IdeaStream Public Media, click here. 

City council will consider legislation Wednesday to permit the board of control to hire contractors for up to $1 million, from Youngstown’s American Rescue Plan funds, to demolish about 75 to 100 vacant houses. Council also will vote at its Wednesday meeting to allow the board to enter into a contract for up to $100,000 for asbestos testing on about 100 vacant structures.

The two proposals come from the $3 million city council set aside in ARP money to address issues with the worst vacant houses in Youngstown. After the two allocations, the fund will have about $500,000 left in it, said Michael Durkin, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent. “By the end of this year, we’ll be pretty much at the end of the line with demos,” Durkin said. “After this, we’d have at the most, 50 houses that need to come down. It will grow a little. There will always be some, but it’s more manageable.”

More than 2,600 vacant houses have been demolished in Youngstown since 2017, according to statistics provided by Durkin. There were 621 taken down in 2017, 646 in 2018 and 513 in 2019. But it has slowed down since then, with under 250 annually between 2020 and 2022, and increasing to 264 last year, he said. City council approved using $8 million of the city’s $82.8 million ARP award on Dec. 15, 2021, for the abatement and demolition of properties throughout Youngstown.

The city kept the money set aside and didn’t do demolitions with the ARP money as it awaited word on an application for a grant through the Ohio Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program. The Mahoning County Land Bank on Dec. 6, 2022, was awarded $6.9 million for demolition work, including $5.3 million to take down about 500 vacant houses in Youngstown. Of the 264 houses demolished last year in Youngstown, 176 came from city ARP funds, 27 were done by private property owners at their personal expense and 61 from the land bank, Durkin said.

The land bank will do more than 350 demolitions in the city this year and will finish the rest in 2025, Durkin said. The remaining $500,000 in the ARP demolition fund will either go toward more demolitions or could be reallocated by city council for other projects, Durkin said. The city has to allocate all of its ARP money by Dec. 31.

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

Lola Lewis is the Arborist and Training Manager for the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation. Lola provides overall guidance and manages all training activities as part of Mahoning Valley TreeCorps, a large-scale urban tree canopy restoration, management, and workforce training program in the cities of Youngstown and Warren, Ohio that involves multiple staff, organizational partners and volunteers.

More than $22 million in federal funds will be coming to Mahoning and Trumbull counties — as part of an agreement between the U.S. House and Senate — including $6.16 million for the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport’s primary runway and $4.2 million for a waterline in Lordstown. The package, which had more than 6,500 earmarks totaling $12.7 billion, includes several big-ticket items for Mahoning and Trumbull counties. At the top of the list is $6.16 million for the airport in Vienna, through the Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates it, to resurface the airport’s main runway. That money would go with a $5 million federal earmark WRPA received for that work in 2022. Anthony Trevena, WRPA’s executive director, said he didn’t want to comment on the money until after the Senate vote. The Youngstown Air Reserve Station, which is adjacent to the airport, is receiving $2.5 million from this package for planning and design work for a new fire station. The station itself is estimated to cost $25 million.

The earmarks for the Mahoning Valley were sponsored by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, along with U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge, and Bill Johnson, a Republican who resigned from the U.S. House in January to become Youngstown State University president.

The village of Lordstown would get $4.2 million to make improvements to its water distribution system by replacing the Pritchard Ohltown Road water station and installing a redundant 24-inch waterline from Meander Reservoir. The line would provide water — as well as a backup in case the existing line goes down — primarily for the Ultium Cells battery plant and other parts of the village. The village, through Brown and Joyce, had sought $14 million for the project. “The funding we received is outstanding,” Lordstown Mayor Jackie Woodward said. “It’s a great start. It’s definitely going to help lift this project off the ground and hopefully we can see the project start soon. I’m very pleased with the funding. Of course, it falls short of the full amount, but at least we can get started.”

Christopher Peterson, president of the village’s board of public affairs, said, “We’re very happy we’re getting the $4.2 million. We’ll take what we can get. We really appreciate any of the funding agencies giving us money for this.” The village applied for a $3 million grant from the Ohio Department of Development and is seeking $6.1 million from the state’s capital budget, Peterson said. The projects at the airport, YARS and Lordstown were the three funded in Trumbull County at a total of $12.86 million.

MAHONING COUNTY

Eight projects in Mahoning County would receive a total of $9,807,652 from Congress. That includes $2.5 million each for Flying HIGH Inc., a Youngstown-based nonprofit, to help with infrastructure needed for housing development in the county, and for the Mahoning Valley Community School in Youngstown for a community learning center on the city’s South Side. The school received a $1 million state grant in January.

The school purchased the former Job and Family Services building at 2026 South Ave. to turn it into a community learning center with plans to include a gymnasium, cafeteria, additional workforce development classrooms, a wellness center, a media center and a childcare facility.

Youngstown received $1,284,652 for an interceptor sewer replacement and combined sewer overflow elimination project, $1.2 million to replace waterlines with lead in them and $400,000 for a transportation study for the East Side with a focus on looking at ways to connect it to an Interstate 80 interchange at state Route 304.

Also, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. would get $1,020,000 for its ongoing effort to renovate the former Foster Theater on the city’s South Side into housing and businesses.

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

City council authorized the board of control to enter into contracts for up to $1 million from Youngstown’s American Rescue Plan fund to demolish about 75 to 100 vacant homes. But city council members Wednesday remained at an impasse on how much ARP money — if any — should be spent to hire an architectural firm for a proposed safety campus. Council voted 6-0 for the board of control to hire contractors to demolish abandoned houses at a cost of up to $1 million as well as to spend up to $100,000, also in ARP funds, for asbestos testing on about 100 vacant structures. The work will be done this year. The funding for the two ordinances comes from the $3 million city council set aside in ARP money to address issues with the worst vacant homes in Youngstown.

Michael Durkin, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent, said he expected the asbestos testing to begin in April and the demolition work to start by June or July. More than 2,600 vacant houses have been demolished in the city since 2017, according to Durkin’s statistics, including 264 last year. Of those 264 in 2023, 176 demolitions used city ARP funds. In addition to the $3 million from the city — with about $500,000 left after this work is finished — the Mahoning County Land Bank received a $6.9 million state grant with $5.3 million included to demolish about 500 homes in Youngstown. The land bank did 61 demolitions last year and expects to do about 350 this year with the rest in 2025, Durkin said. After all of that work is finished, there will be approximately 50 houses in the city that will need to be demolished, Durkin said.

City council is likely to reallocate the remaining $500,000 in ARP funds that are left for demolitions for other projects. The city has to allocate all of its $87.8 million ARP fund by the end of this year.

SAFETY CAMPUS: The city administration is recommending council approve spending $3 million in ARP funds to hire an architectural firm for a proposed safety campus. As it did at its Feb. 21 meeting, council on Wednesday declined to approve the request. A third and final reading is set for a special council meeting on March 26. Not all council members support the safety campus proposed for Wick Avenue on the city’s North Side or spending $3 million for design work. Council members on Wednesday discussed possibly spending $1 million, $1.5 million or $3 million on the design work with Pat Kelly, D-5th Ward, and Anita Davis, D-6th Ward, saying they oppose the project as it currently stands. The location proposed by the administration is on Wick Avenue at what was known as the Wick Six, a group of new car dealerships that left in the 1980s. The city purchased much of the 12 acres of property in 2015 and has spent at least $750,000, mostly from grants, to clean it up for development. Kelly and Davis oppose that location. The two and other council members want other location options for the safety complex. But Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said the “only real location we have is on Wick Avenue.” Finance Director Kyle Miasek said the city has to allocate the ARP money by the end of this year and to go with another site would put the “project in jeopardy.”

The project is estimated to cost $30 million to $45 million with Brown asking city council in December to commit up to $15 million in ARP funds for the facility when an outline for it was unveiled. That financial commitment has met with resistance from a majority of council members. Councilwoman Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward, who suggested $1.5 million be spent for the design work, said $30 million “is pretty much the Taj Mahal,” and instead of a combined police station-main fire station there could be an option to just build a police station and upgrade the main fire station downtown. Brown said at the Feb. 21 meeting that the $3 million for the design work would help nail down the actual cost of the project as well as consider alternate locations. The administration’s plan would be to use ARP money as well as state and federal grants with the rest borrowed by the city over a 20-year period. The project would take eight to 10 months to design and then 18 to 24 months to construct. Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward and a strong supporter of the project, said he expects it will get done at the Wick Avenue location and council will approve it at the March 26 meeting. Kelly said: “I’m not on board with spending the money. They’re giving us no alternate sites so why give $3 million? I’m a no for $3 million. They better come down a little bit. I can’t say a number. I say, ‘Give me some sites and other options.'”

At Wednesday’s meeting, council allowed the board of control to waive bidding and pay $96,535 to Schindler Elevator Corp. to replace the doors on the police department’s elevator. Brown said the city is trying to postpone any major improvements to the police station because of the proposed safety campus. “The building is so old,” Brown said. “We want to limit our losses.” Also Wednesday, council supported Kelly’s legislation to spend $15,000 from the city’s 5th Ward ARP fund to purchase a bomb-sniffing dog for the city’s police department. Council voted April 6, 2022 to give each of its seven members $2 million in ARP funds for ward projects.

Council gave a second reading Wednesday to give $52,000 from Davis’ ward ARP fund for the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. to do renovations and improvements to Beyond Expectations Barber College on Glenwood Avenue.

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

Monday, March 11, 2024. 

On Friday, March 8, Denise DeBartolo York awarded a $10,000 grant to YNDC for the Glenwood Fresh Market.

The market, located at 2915 Glenwood Avenue, provides year-round access to FREE fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy food items for residents of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. The market also provides free health screenings, nutrition literacy courses, cooking demonstrations, and other resources to members. 

Huge thanks to Denise DeBartolo York for her ongoing support!

On every side of Youngstown, there are streets with vacant lots where houses once stood — and where houses could be built once again.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation estimates there are 25,000 vacant parcels in the city.

To read the full story from WKBN, click here.