Riverside Initiative

The Riverside Initiative—A Blueprint Community
Community Revitalization Proposal

Original Date of submission: April 2009

Name of planning team: The Riverside Initiative—A Blueprint Community

Person submitting this grant proposal
Name: Eugene John Rudder
Phone: (302) 429-6701 x1026
Email: erudder@whadelaware.org

Fiscal agent for this grant
Name of 501(c)(4) nonprofit agency: Wilmington Housing Authority
Mailing Address: 400 N Walnut Street
Wilmington, Delaware 19801

Name of Chief Executive Officer:Mr. Frederick S. Purnell, Sr.
Phone:(302) 429-6701
Email:fpurnell@whadelaware.org

Provide the names of all the fully active primary members of your community planning team:

Stephanie Bolden
Lynn Buchanan
Carolyn Martin-Pettaway
Dr Will Robinson
Eugene Rudder
Roger Turk
Tanya Washington
Irmina Williams

Planning Team:

We have been extremely fortunate in that our planning team has not changed since March of 2008. The very composition of our team lends itself to a broad representation of who lives and works in the Riverside community. Stephanie Bolden is the councilwoman who represents the Riverside community (along with the rest of the third district); Lynn Buchanan is not only a banker with extraordinary banking and real estate skills, but has been dedicated for most of her adult life to the proposition of sustainable community revitalization; Carolyn Martin-Pettaway, a long-serving city servant whose spirituality and faith has helped to guide this initiative from the very beginning; Dr. Will Robinson whose dedication to the children of Riverside is exemplified by his founding of the East Side Charter School; Eugene Rudder whose community activism began in the cotton fields of Mississippi during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement to the housing professional he is today working for the Wilmington Housing Authority; Roger Turk who brings the unlikely but very needed combination of having worked as both a social worker and building contractor and whose temperament keeps us all so very focused; Tanya Washington whose understanding of the process of city governance along with her own professional sphere of influence is reinforced by the fact that she spent her formative years growing up in the Riverside community proper and Irmina Williams, whose more than twenty years of social work and housing counseling make her the quiet but formidable force on our team.

Summary of Proposed Activities:

Any monies received, as an award from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh's Affordable Housing Program will be used to assist affordable home buyers with down payment and closing cost assistance.

The Revitalization Plan however is much more than the proposed activity of providing down payment and closing cost assistance to affordable home buyers. This component, though absolutely critical will only be a reality if the revitalization of Riverside is a reality. To that end, the Business and Economic Development Action Team (one of eight such teams) has already undertaken a study, in cooperation with the City of Wilmington's Office of Business and Economic Development, to determine how best to create business and economic development opportunities in Riverside while simultaneously developing public/private partnerships to facilitate this process.

Chris Coons, County Executive of New Castle County, Delaware, implored all nine Blueprint Communities in his remarks of January 16, 2009 at the Blueprint Communities symposium, to ‘reach high—to dream big.’ It is our contention that the Riverside Initiative reaches higher and dreams larger than any of the other eight Delaware Blueprint Communities. Our goal is to replace 546 units of distressed public housing with 323 single family homes with an average per-unit size of 2000 square feet. As stated above, it is also our goal to construct a senior multi-unit mid-rise of at least sixty units and at least 130 senior cottages for seniors not yet requiring assisted living resources. Most importantly, it is our goal to return at least 30% of the residents currently living in Riverside’s public housing units to the new Riverside. A community that will offer both a work and shop in the neighborhood lifestyle, walkability, a generous allocation of green space and a community that is safe and that finally lives up to its potential of being the wonderful gateway to Wilmington, Delaware that it was always meant to be.

We recognize that there are forces outside of Riverside who maintain that this project is too large that maybe we should tackle one issue at a time. Some have even expressed “confusion” about our priorities. We have been questioned, “Is it business and economic development or is it housing?” We have also been counseled to make “neighborhood economic development the priority.”

While our team learned much during our Blueprint Communities training in 2008, the single most important lesson we learned was that the involvement and engagement of community stakeholders is paramount in any effort to revitalize and redevelop the Riverside Community. Through our training and interaction with our community stakeholders, we have come to recognize and hold true to the notion that the engagement of the citizens of Riverside is the most credible way of recognizing voices that possess important information on how the community revitalization process should proceed. So we move full steam ahead, realistically in our understanding of the challenges, but undaunted by them. It is these voices that we have chosen and are committed to listen to. Consequently, we will be pursuing the revitalization in a holistic manner, albeit in phases as it relates to the demolition of the public housing units since this task is driven in great part by funding and subsidy support and HUD regulations as well as relocation requirements as dictated by the Uniform Relocation Act (URA) a set of federal guidelines to govern relocation where federal monies are deployed.

Goals and Objectives to be Addressed:

 Housing: In the first phase, demolish 352 units of public housing to be replaced
by 103 units of affordable homeownership opportunities, 86 market rate
homeownership opportunities, 60 senior mid-rise public housing apartments.
53 public housing senior cottages and 50 market rate senior cottages

 Business and Economic Development: Attract both business and light industry to
Riverside creating a work and shop-in-your neighborhood environment

 Workforce Development: Expand relationships with Delaware Community College, the
Wilmington Job Corps, Delaware State University, Delaware Technical College and
University, as part of an effort to assist Riverside residents in their ability
to acquire viable workplace skills that will ultimately fascilitate their return
to a newly revitalized Riverside

 Education: Work closely with East Side Charter School on early intervention in the
lives of Riverside's younger students. Establish and sustain a partnership with
middle and high schools that serve the Riverside community ensuring that our
children can go anywhere their academic aspirations take them.

 Public Safety: Engage Wilmington’s Weed and Seed Program while simultaneously
working to create collaboration between police and Riverside's residents to
discourage criminal tendencies and behavior. We have also been working from the
beginning wiht the Wilmington Muslim Center, in particular with Dwight Davis who
almost singlehandedly has been working to provide opportunities for Delawareans
who are being released from incarceration and who desire to become productive and
important members of communities throughout the State, including Riverside. It is
the intent of the Initiative to work closely with Mr. Davis in seeking a revision
of Admissions and Continued Occupancy policies and procedures that currently
govern public housing so that the needs and rights of individuals re-entering the
community are not denied housing and employment opportunities.

 Youth Issues: Work closely with Riverside youth in the areas of career training,
drug and crime elimination while developing respect for their neighborhood.

 Senior Issues: Work closely with Riverside seniors and senior services providers
in the areas of assisted and non-assisted living, healthcare and transportation.

 Civic Responsibilities: Educate residents on the importance of voting and being
emgaged in the political process. Help residents to understand the importance of
maintaining a clean and healthy neighborhood while simultaneously escalating the
level of community dialogue--encouraging residents to speak to one another in a
manner that is consistent with recognizing individual and group accomplishments
within the community.

Involvement of Community Stakeholders:

The first step in engaging the community in the Riverside Initiative was to identify a preliminary list of community as well as municipal, county, state government and federal government stakeholders. These stakeholders were invited to voice their commitment to the project as well as participating in the process that led to the identification of eight issues (described in the section above) that would drive the planning and implementation process.

As the issues were identified and relevant action teams formed, the core team was still in training with Blueprint Communities. This allowed us to have access to a host of best practices regarding community revitalization even as we were working with stakeholders to develop a Riverside revitalization plan. It is hoped that the action team process, which has already been a major factor in the development of the final plan itself, will also become the basis of a process whereby Riverside will be positioned to seek funding for programs and services that will be brought to bear on the community’s prioritized actions and solutions and where government stakeholder agencies and other funders will design their response to proposals from the stakeholders in a way that reflects the desires and priorities of the community-at-large.

Community Residents: Riverside’s residents have, from the very beginning, been at the center of this effort. Of the 382 families who live in Riverside’s public housing, a core of 60 families has evolved with about half of that number averaging in attendance at each monthly community stakeholder meeting. Despite our Herculean efforts to engage more residents, at the moment, this is where we are. Residents have been an integral part of our action team strategy and their handprint is all over the revitalization plan as it exists today. The goal of the core team is to add not only more residents during the implementation phase of our revitalization effort, but to more importantly, increase the capacity of our resident stakeholders as their ability to deal with the tough issues of construction, temporary relocation, viable employment and asset building is what will ultimately determine the success of the implementation of this plan.

Businesses: One of our primary business stakeholders is Charlie Allen, owner of North East Body. He is the primary reason why other Riverside businesses are engaged in this process. Other businesses involved are:

 U-Haul: Rashon Williams, Manager
 NAPA Auto parts: William Gold, Manager
 MAACO Auto Body: Chris Schlott: Owner,
 Catholic Charities Thrift Store: Diane Giovannozzi, Manager
 Quality III, Fire Protection, Incorporated: Mike Woodie: President
 Furness Electrical Engineers, Incorporated: Lisa Barker: Vice-President
 Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corporation: Harris Corbett: Branch Manager
 Imagica Construction: Omar Faust: Owner

From the beginning, business and economic development has been a central theme of this revitalization effort. It is one of the primary differences between this initiative and past efforts. As a result, business has made a significant contribution to the overall planning process. While business brings a whole host of considerations that should be inherent in any revitalization effort, the most dramatic phenomenon has been the way Riverside businesses and residents have come together. A mutual respect has developed for the needs of one to the other and more importantly, these two groups of stakeholders have found common ground on which to re-build Riverside into a community that welcomes business, and where business in turn welcomes the families that will support and sustain economic activity. The continued participation of Riverside business owners and managers is a critical component of the implementation phase of our community’s revitalization plan. Their voice will continue to be heard and we look to the business sector of our community for guidance and leadership on how best to strengthen existing Riverside businesses while at the same time attracting new business and light industry.

Government: The City of Wilmington has been extremely supportive regarding the work of this initiative. The City’s Office of Planning in the person of Derrick Lightfoot has provided many hours of consultive support, assisting the core team in acquiring an understanding of how planning fits into community revitalization. Mr. Lightfoot’s expertise has had an incalculable impact on the more technical aspects of the development of our revitalization plan and his calm demeanor has been a voice of reason and unity at our stakeholder meetings where there is sometimes a clash in priorities and personalities. Our residents, from the very beginning, were impressed with Mr. Lightfoot, particularly his ability to translate highly technical concepts into language easily understood by everyone. His continued participation through the implementation process is invaluable and his technical expertise will prove to be one of the assets within our initiative that will spell the difference between a mediocre revitalization and a fantastic one.

 Corporal Corey Brown, of the Wilmington Police Department regularly patrols the Riverside community. He has attended all of our community stakeholder meetings and having him there is not only a reminder that he cares about the people he protects, but that he is willing to go the extra mile in order to assist in any way he can.

 Steve Pilnick, a member of Joe DePinto’s staff at the City of Wilmington’s Office of Business and Economic Development has been with us from the very beginning. Not only has he attended all of our community stakeholder meetings, but he is also an active and contributing member of our Business and Economic Development Action Team. Mr. Pilnick has made it possible for us to present our Initiative’s goals and objectives to business and civic groups and he arranged for us to make a presentation to the bi-weekly city agency cluster meetings that Mr. DePinto himself has organized. On December 10, 2008 the Riverside Initiative presented our plan-in-progress to more than a dozen city agencies as well as a number of State and Federal agencies, followed by a robust Q&A session.

 From its inception, the Riverside Initiative has been driven in large part by the support of the Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA). Three members of the core team are employed by WHA and each person, as part of his or her WHA duties, has brought to the table a wide range of experience and expertise. As Riverside’s largest property owner, it is in the best interests of the housing authority to ensure a stable, safe, clean and decent Riverside, particularly in light of HUD’s new asset-based management requirements.

Those requirements mandate that WHA manage each of its asset-managed properties (AMPs) in such a manner that they are each self-sufficient and that the funding and financial performance of each AMP is independent of one another. Mr. Fred Purnell, Sr., WHA’s Executive Director is committed to the full revitalization of Riverside and to the implementation of the revitalization plan of the

Riverside Initiative. WHA has recently received $5.6 million in stimulus money from HUD and Mr. Purnell has allocated $1 million for the demolition of 146 units in Riverside that are currently uninhabitable and separated from the rest of the community by a chain link fence. The symbolic power of this demolition is beyond words and will, almost more than anything else we can do, make the point once and for all, that the goal of revitalization this time is not a hollow promise, but something that will truly take place.

 Vandell Hampton, Executive Director of First State Community Loan has been a strong supporter of the Riverside Initiative, since the update we provided to the Blueprint Advisory Committee in October 2008. His participation on our Business and Economic Development Action Team has been particularly helpful and he is someone we look to for bringing new business to Riverside.

 Jen Bruehler of the Delaware Center for Horticulture has been working with the North East side of Wilmington for a very long time and has now begun to attend our community stakeholder meetings as well. Her influence can be seen in the generous allocation of green space in our preliminary site plan and she has taught us the importance of “green” on many levels. Her continued engagement in the implementation of the revitalization plan is extremely critical as she will be keeping us all honest in helping to create the kind of environment in Riverside that is healthy for everyone who lives and works there.

Other Stakeholders: One of our strategies for the January 16th presentation was to demonstrate real progress, particularly in the area of housing, since that was the primary focus of the presentation. To that end, we enlisted the pro bono support of Architectural Alliance, one of Wilmington’s premier architectural firms. With more than 20 years experience in both the private and public sector, our core team approached the president and principal Kevin Wilson asking him to prepare, pro bono, a series of renderings and elevations that would bring to life our housing vision. Mr. Wilson readily agreed to perform this service for the Riverside community and the result was a series of drawings that lent both beauty and credibility to what we described in the narrative portion of our presentation. Since that time, Mr. Wilson has joined our band of stakeholders and his continued involvement ensures that the architectural and engineering pieces of the plan’s implementation are in the best hands possible.

Timeframe for Implementation:
As we stated in our presentation on January 16th, this initiative has a rather lengthy timeline. It is the sense of everyone involved in this project that a three to five year window from plan implementation to ribbon cutting is not out of the question. There are several issues that will impact the timeframe for this initiative. They are, but not necessarily limited to:

Funding: Like all community revitalization efforts, Riverside’s greatest challenge is funding. We hope to be able to access some federal monies through the upcoming HOPE VI funding that became available in late August of 2010. The Wilmington Housing Authority along with its development partner Roizman Development, Incorporated will be submitting a HOPE VI application in pursuit of a $22,000,000 grant that is already leveraged almost 4-1 creating a project of a little more than $86,000,000. It is also hoped that this grant that we are pursuing through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburg's Affordable Housing Program will assist many qualified affordable home buyers within this project.

Public/Private Partnerships: We have already met with one major Wilmington developer and now that our revitalization plan is nearing completion, it is time to sit down with him again. He expressed a keen sense of interest in our preliminary proposal and now we think he will be even more interested.

As stated previously in this proposal, the Riverside Initiative has been working closely with the City of Wilmington’s Office of Business and Economic Development since early in 2008. From that partnership has sprung a possible collaboration with a noteworthy Wilmington developer interested in building a technology park and conference center in the North East. We have already had preliminary talks and both sides seem eager and willing to work together.

All of us, WHA, RDI, Kingswood and the Blueprint team are commited to an overall time frame for the project to be fully implemented is between two and three years. As we get closer to the actual implementation phase of the revitalization plan, we will have a clearer vision of the actual timeframe involved. The fact that we have begun early however, to do the heavy lifting in the area of building capacity and assets for our residents as well as identifying funding opportunities will pay off we hope in a high number of current Riverside residents returning to the new Riverside, post-revitalization.

Partner Organizations:

The Riverside Initiative has been successful in attracting partner organizations. They have added tremendously to the core team’s capacity and in some cases double as community builders.

 Fiscal Agent Organization: The Wilmington Housing Authority will act as the fiscal organization regarding any monies received from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh.

 Partner Organization: The City of Wilmington’s Office of Business and Economic Development is more than a stakeholder although that is how they are usually referred to in our proposals and/or brochures. They have orchestrated talks with leading business organizations and business leaders not only in Wilmington, Delaware but throughout the county. On March 31, 2009 they facilitated a discussion between Harvey Hanna and Associates and WHA, a primary Riverside Initiative stakeholder, regarding the development of a technology and conference center right on North East Boulevard.

 Partner Organization: Vandell Hampton, Executive Director of First State Community Loan, is an active and critical member of the Riverside Initiative’s Business and Economic Development Action Team. He has been an integral force in helping us shape a Scope of Work (SOW) that will facilitate a comprehensive marketing survey of the Riverside community. This survey will study existing businesses in Riverside as well as the potential for new business. This process is part of our overall transformation strategy in creating a work in and shop in your own neighborhood environment. It should also be noted that the Riverside Initiative in partnership with First State Community Loan and the Kingswood Community Center is pursuing a development grant from the Wachovia Foundation.

Evaluation:

In order to not only achieve success, but to ensure success that is quality driven, our self-assessment process will have to be effectively led and magaged. The core team and the stakeholder community are also committed to an assessment process that will be an integral part of the project to revitalize the Riverside coommunity.

This part of our plan’s implementation will require a climate of trust in which the community stakeholders are constructively self-critical about their performance. Residents, business people, Federal, State and local officials, contractors and anyone else involved in this revitalization will need to be committed to the aims of self-assessment and actively involved with it. Self-assessment of our own performance (the core team) will demonstrate leadership by example.

Stakeholders at all levels will be required to actively participate in a self-assessment process as part of their respective responsibilities for maintaining standards of quality while improving the overall effectiveness of the revitalization effort.

A lynchpin of implementing our final revitalization plan will be to include everyone in developing success criteria as well as a process of self-assessment. The nature of the self-assessment will vary according to the scale and nature of the individual stakeholder. Stakeholders will need to demonstrate understanding of what they do well, what needs improving, and how improvement can be monitored, achieved and evaluated. Whatever the precise approach, the key test of the resulting self-assessment process will be its ability to demonstrate how high quality is sustained and improvement ensured.

The Riverside Initiative’s self-assessment process should directly relate to and drive the project’s revitalization plan in order to demonstrate how strengths will be sustained and improved and how key areas for improvement will be addressed. The outcomes of this self-assessment process will be a basis for action. Effectiveness will need to be measured by a regular monitoring and evaluation of progress against objectives. The self-assessment process will also include an evaluation of the extent to which actions identified have secured improvement.

The provision and analysis of robust data will be a vital foundation of self-assessment. Project participants and stakeholders will be expected to draw upon a wide range of performance data to facilitate the self-assessment process and then to compare their performance with others through the use of nationally available benchmarking data. Use of this comparative data will support a dialogue between the planning and funding bodies of this revitalization project. Of particular importance will be trends in project performance over time and how the project’s participants have influenced and responded to any trends borne out by the data.

The development and dissemination of good practice can only serve to assist the project’s participants to carry out accurate and robust self-assessment to facilitate the writing of their own self-assessment reports and as appropriate, the summaries of self-assessment reports for public discourse.

The ability to self-assess effectively, to identify strengths and weaknesses and to implement identified improvements is critical to the development of a continuously improving revitalization project in Riverside and is a necessary precondition for positive change.

In addition, the involvement of individuals or organizations external to the revitalization project can also be helpful in strengthening objectivity. External involvement may also give rise to significant issues or questions, which had not previously been considered. It will also test the clarity and the effectiveness of the analysis in the self-assessment process and confirm whether that process supports clearly what the stakeholders intended.

 Assessing the Plan Implementation Process: The face of assisted housing in the United States is changing. The current economic conditions in our county have resulted in millions of people losing first their job and then their home. At the same time, expectations and requirements have increased, with dwindling pay for American workers, escalating health care costs and an almost total loss of access to credit for the average American family.

It is in the midst of this crisis that the Riverside Initiative begins its task of community revitalization. Consequently, assessing the implementation of our community revitalization plan will be a critical and continuous process that adapts to the Riverside Initiative’s changing circumstances and will include ongoing evaluation. Effective evaluation will force the core team and the stakeholders to rethink and adapt objectives, priorities and strategies as implementation gets underway. Continuous evaluation also will facilitate changes to the plan if certain aspects of the plan are not working.

The ability of the Riverside Initiative’s team, stakeholders and partners to work together is of course the most important component of this plan’s success. Continuously assessing the partnership within the Initiative will begin with an effort to identify such individual skill sets such as problem solving, information management, communication and negotiation skills. The importance of such competencies is now more evident than ever because of their relevance to both project planning and project performance. We are indeed fortunate to have, as a stakeholder, Dr. Peggy Mack, Executive Director of the Delaware Coalition for Injury Prevention. In addition to her duties as the head of this coalition, she is also a recognized expert in the field of institutional self-assessment. She has agreed to take the lead on helping us to learn how to assess whether or not partnerships are working within the Initiative, whether or not we are achieving desired outcomes and most importantly, how to respond to the realities that self-assessment demonstrates. Lynn Buchanan, core team member and Loan Officer for WSFS Bank, has agreed to use her expertise to design and manage a tracking system that will ensure that all elements of the project are being completed on time and within budget.

 Outputs: We learned in our Blueprint Communities training that assessing a project’s output begins with a definition of what we wish to accomplish. Are the broader goals to reduce poverty or the unemployment rate or to provide housing or even something as vague as enhancing economic opportunities? We have already learned in the classroom of Riverside that too often, it is easy for community development teams and stakeholders to focus on tangible results only, thereby losing sight of the broader outcomes they are trying to achieve, By continuously stopping to reflect on these broader outcomes, specific and tangible inputs and outputs can be refined and focused. In working with Dr. Mack, we have come to the understanding that one of the best methods of measuring both broad and specific outcomes is to develop a working matrix that would include such performance measures as increased average income, increased workforce development, reduced poverty levels, lower unemployment rates, higher homeownership numbers, higher property values and lower commercial vacancy rates. Since we have already identified the eight issues that will drive this initiative in June of 2008 (housing, workforce development, senior issues, youth issues, business and economic development, education, public safety and civic responsibilities) we are now able to re-direct some of our focus to the broader issues, creating an appropriate mix of performance measures across the board.

 Outcomes: In a project such as this, it is much easier to state the expected longer term benefits for the people that will be directly served than to actually realize them. Having said that, it is our goal to achieve, but not necessarily be limited to, the following:

 To build a total of 352 single family homes with an average footprint of 1900 square feet

 Set a target of 33% of newly created housing to include home ownership or fair market rate rental housing for families who do not meet the criteria for public housing or the Housing Choice Voucher Program

 Set a target of 33% of newly created housing that would be replacement public housing and Housing Choice Voucher designated units with programs in place to move those residents into greater self-sufficiency and ultimately separation from public housing and Section 8 and to provide at least 33% of the newly created housing units as affordable housing homeownership opportunities

 Create business enhancement opportunities for existing Riverside businesses

 Create a business friendly environment that would attract new business to Riverside to include retail, sit-down restaurants, light industry and manufacturing and a healthcare facility

 Build a senior mid-rise assisted living facility consisting of at least 50 units

 To reduce violent crime in Riverside by at least 80%

 To create a work-in-your-own and shop-in-your-own neighborhood

 To finally bring public transportation to Riverside

 To work closely with the Kingswood Community Center in an effort that would improve and enhance the delivery of services to both the youth and senior populations

 To provide training to Riverside residents in the area of civic responsibilities, encouraging people to become engaged in the political process and in the governance of their community

 The Riverside Public Housing Resident: The challenge of a lack of economic self-sufficiency in communities like Riverside is a national challenge. Since national welfare reform in the mid-1990s, some progress has been made to bring low-income families to economic self-sufficiency, but the task is far from done. In order to be successful in today’s economy and sustain personal security, the residents in Riverside need to develop assets. Assets are considered any appreciating investment such as savings, or ownership of a home, and can also include personal investments such as education, which can lead to an increase in personal income.

The asset poor residents of Riverside are vulnerable to economic shock because they do not have savings to carry them through difficult times. They often lack financial education, an understanding of the value of savings, and incentives to look beyond short-term economic hardships to their long term economic self-sufficiency.

Irmina Williams, WHA’s Resident Services Chief and a member of the Riverside Initiative’s core team, has more than 15 years of experience working with low-income families with a special focus on building self-sufficiency and asset building and is our point person for this critical task in the revitalization of the human condition in Riverside. Her work with residents has been driven by her ability to help residents craft comprehensive strategies that are necessary in order to reinforce asset development.

What WHA has already been able to determine through the administration of its ROSS program is that low-income residents are very capable of attaining economic self-sufficiency when given the proper incentives and support. Through longstanding experience with ROSS, WHA has learned very important lessons about how to effectively develop assets among the poor. These lessons help to better formulate strategies to begin to move people from asset poverty to saving. It is crucial to continue to move from a culture of dependency on welfare to a culture of savings and economic self-sufficiency.

WHA’s experience with the ROSS program has also demonstrated the value of additional asset choices. Whereas, the original idea limited the asset choices to the purchase of a home, small-business start-up or expansion, or post-secondary education, Ms. Williams has expanded the asset choices to include the purchase of a vehicle, computer and personal finance training (e.g. budget development, managing a checking account). Ms. Williams has been able to demonstrate through her work in ROSS that additional asset choices increase the scope of asset development and allows for more individuality.

Adopting a hybrid system where non-profits and financial institutions better complement each other is also an important policy consideration. In this collaboration, financial institutions would concentrate on a family’s money while non-profits would simultaneously focus on the delivery of support services.

Even with a focus on economic self-sufficiency and asset building, a culture of savings will take some time to create and requiring people to buy a significant asset within two or three years does not necessarily maximize desired outcomes. Consequently, the hybrid model presented above could help the transition away from the one-size-fits-all model to a more tailored model where the amount of financial education and support services are determined by the resident’s income and financial awareness.

One of the important lessons learned by facilitators of asset building in low-income communities nationally is that a culture of savers cannot be created quickly or without significant programmatic support. This has led to the decision by this Initiative, to develop long-term asset developing habits with the young people of Riverside. An excellent strategy to develop long-term asset development habits is to reach people when they are young to begin to build strong savings habits.

As part of the implementation of its revitalization plan, the Riverside Initiative will position itself to provide a comprehensive set of asset development strategies to help Riverside residents build assets and achieve economic self-sufficiency. The support of the government and financial sectors will strengthen this strategy and more flexibility will increase the scale of the Initiative’s plan.

In order to sustain this program and achieve the scale that is necessary to serve the residents of Riverside, the Initiative, through its action team methodology, has already begun to consider and discuss the following:

 Increase the range of asset choices to include such assets as vehicles

 Allow a level of flexibility that will increase points of access and the length of time available to save

 Create incentives for banks and other corporations to contribute match funds to help the asset building program for Riverside residents grow in scope and impact

 Continue the work begun by WHA and Irmina Williams in reaching out to local agencies so as to increase the effectiveness and impact of their programs

 Increase the commitment to youth asset building programs, supporting the culture of saving in young Riverside residents

Conclusion:

Finally, the Riverside Initiative is committed to facilitating the kind of revitalization that will support the community’s effort to create an equitable, environmentally sustainable, and mixed income community that will ultimately provide residents, business and all of its stakeholders with choice and opportunity. We have learned through our Blueprint Communities training that communities of choice are economically and culturally diverse, and provide a range of housing choices, promote development that is walkable, environmentally sustainable and cost-effective. Our initiative is committed to the support of green building methodologies and energy efficiency in policy and practice; aggressively connect redevelopment to jobs and information through transit and wireless networks; and build equity into those systems and most of all to ensure that Riverside’s residents can benefit from the community’s revitalization.

Our core team and community of stakeholders has come to understand that different market dynamics create different challenges for communities and neighborhoods—every community is either growing or shrinking, attracting investments or experiencing disinvestment, gaining population or losing residents, experiencing a rise or decline in property values—and that the most effective responses to these conditions are tailored to each of those market realities.

The road ahead is a tough one and is fraught with challenges, people who feel that the project is too big, or people who think that we need to divide the project into “manageable” phases. The Riverside Initiative—A Blueprint Community however understands that nothing this magnificent is easy. We have come to live by the words of Napoleon Hill who once wrote that “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

It is our hope and yes, it is also our prayer, that Blueprint Communities, and especially the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, will want to not only continue to be a part of the magnificent transformation that is underway in Riverside but that you will wish to do all that you can to help ensure its success as a sustainable revitalized community.

Thank you.

Riverside Initiative

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Something to Think About

Thursday, June 2, 2011

The Struggle Continues

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Eureka! It's in!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Riverside's Residents Get into the Game!

Monday, October 11, 2010

2010 Riverside HOPE VI Application Launched!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Riverside Community Revitalization Plan

The Riverside Initiative

The Riverside Initiative

The Riverside Initiative

The Riverside Blueprint Community Team

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