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Eric Van Dusen, director of community initiatives, NeighborWorks Rochester
Challenge: Once a neighborhood has become overwhelmed by poverty, collapsed housing market conditions and high vacancy rates, it is difficult for them to fully recover. Although some Rochester, NY, neighborhoods are stable, more are struggling. These transitional neighborhoods still have enough of an asset base that can help them recover.
Rochester’s neighborhoods are at a pivotal point. The city is the 5th poorest in the United States and studies show its poverty rate continues to rise. Many neighborhoods have seen property values decrease and vacancies dramatically increase. The population is shrinking as people leave the city.
The resident engagement and economic foundation of some neighborhoods can overcome the challenges of poverty and blight. Their success is intrinsically tied to the future of Rochester as whole. Although facing a growing level of economic and social challenges, these transitional neighborhoods still have enough of an asset base to leverage neighborhood reinvestment that can be sustained over time. Because of this, even modest investments and improvements have the potential to make a difference and add value.
NeighborWorks Rochester recognized an opportunity to rescue these teetering neighborhoods at a critical moment. In 2005, we launched the Healthy Blocks Initiative in our first transitional, weak-market neighborhood with the goal of working with residents and community stakeholders in order to transform it.
NeighborWorks Rochester’s first Healthy Blocks revitalization project debuted in the Swillburg, neighborhood, a neighborhood in southeast Rochester. In the 19th century, pig farms dominated the area, hence the name. Today, the small lots, modest, older homes and narrow streets give the neighborhood an intimate hamlet-like atmosphere.
But until Healthy Blocks began its work there, many Swillburg houses were starting to fall into disrepair and were beginning to show signs of disinvestment, discouraging potential would-be homebuyers and renters.
Working with Swillburg residents and community stakeholders, we first conducted baseline measurements that we could use to evaluate Healthy Blocks’ impact. We tracked house sales data, including asking price, sale price and days on the market. We also conducted property surveys for each house, documenting their condition. Healthy Blocks also went door-to-door with resident leaders to ask homeowners and tenants to fill out a neighborhood confidence survey.
Healthy Blocks then offered each resident a decorative house plaque with the Swillburg logo and their house number. Most of the homeowners participated, as did many of the investors, quickly giving the neighborhood a unified, connected feel. We also branded street signs and installed gateway plaques at the neighborhood’s two main entryways, creating a distinctive district feel.
Healthy Blocks organized group purchases that offered homeowners and landlords contractor discounts on driveway replacements. Because NeighborWorks Rochester is a Community Development Financial Institution, we were able to offer discounted interest rates on our home repair loans if work included House Proud exterior improvements. Healthy Blocks provided Welcome Wagon folders with information on projects and services that residents could distribute to new homeowners.
Residents planned and organized the building of a gazebo in Otto Henderberg Park, now a popular venue for concerts and other events. The park was named for the man who led a campaign to stop an expressway from cutting up the neighborhood. He succeeded, but not before a block of homes was demolished. Some of that land is now home to the lovely park that has become a point of pride for the revitalized neighborhood.
When Healthy Blocks began working in Swillburg in 2005, the average house was selling for about $48,000. By 2010, houses sold on average for $82,000, bringing the neighborhood’s value back up to where it had been before its decline. Property condition surveys documented an increase in House Proud scores for both owners and investors between 2005 and 2010. Most notably, House Proud scores for investor-owned properties improved almost 75 percent.
The residents’ overall confidence in the neighborhood improved as well, and the Swillburg Neighborhood Association membership rose by more than 40 percent. Resident participation in neighborhood social activities was also up and the survey found that in 2010 residents had a better feeling about the direction the neighborhood was headed and felt more connected to their neighbors.
When confronting Rochester’s declining neighborhoods, NeighborWorks Rochester knew that a market-driven approach to stabilize property values and improve property conditions would be essential, if any impact was going to be sustained long-term. But we also knew that to get there we needed to have engaged residents whose confidence in their neighborhood was growing, leading them to re-invest both economically and socially.
Our most effective methods included implementing a unifier project (address plaques) and organizing social events on a regular basis. As we went door-to-door conducting our resident confidence survey, we were able to inform neighbors about how to get involved with Healthy Blocks and about the programs and loans available for home-repairs and the grant funds we secured for public space projects. Concerts, picnics and other social events attracted residents usually reluctant to attend neighborhood meetings, helping to create a well-organized and connected community in the process. These efforts required only modest investments, but they led to big, long-lasting results.
