Eureka! It's in!

On Tuesday, November 23, 2010, the Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA), under the leadership of Executive Director, Frederick S. Purnell, Sr. in partnership with its Development partner, Roizman Development, Incorporated (RDI) successfully submitted a FY 2010 HOPE VI Revitalization Grant application to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). There are many to thank for this accomplishment. Among them are Mr. Purnell whose patience and leadership kept it all together;both Israel and Noam Roizman for their hard work and their commitment to working closely with both Mr. Purnell and Marcus Henry, Director of Development for WHA; WRT Associates, a Philadelphia architecture firm whose premier architects and urban planners Woo Kim and Robert Reich did a yeoman's job of preparing the application for submission; His Honor James Baker, Mayor of Wilmington who again as he did last year, lent his unqualifed support to the application's submission, Ms. Bernadette Winston who serves as the Board Chair of WHA's Board of Commissioners as well as Executive Director of Kingswood Community Center, a key partner in this project; Ms. Erin Innes of Congressman Castle's office who managed the process of getting all of the Delaware delegation to sign a letter of support for the application; Debra Jackson-Spence whose contacts and reputation as an honest community organizer helped keep the application process on track; Professor Raheemah Jabbar-Bey and Dr. Steve Pequet of the University of Delaware for their contribution to the part of the application that dealt with assessment and evaluation of the project as it moves from one phase to the next; Gary Stockbridge CEO of Delmarva and Board Chair of the Kingswood Community Center who was the driving force in bringing WHA into partnership with the Delaware Workforce Investment Board in providing training and employment for Riverside residents; Dr. Susan Zawisiak of the Delaware Technical Community College whose college will provide training for Riverside and other public housing residents in the area of green technology; Sarah Noonan at Westside Family Healthcare who is expanding its services to the Northeast quandrant of Wilmington in general and in Riverside specifically; Fred Sears of the Longwood Foundation who provided huge financial support to the application; Charlie McDowell, Chair of the Board at East Side Charter School (ESCS) and the principal at ESCS Ms. Dominique Taylor; and then all the community-based organizations who voiced their support for our application, organizations such as DACA, Delaware Health and Social Services, the North East Alliance, Serviam Academy,and DNREC who provided leverage support and Staff Choice, Incorporated, another organization that will be providing workforce development opportunities for our residents; and to everyone else who was there for us. And, a special shout out to Ms. Tanya Washington, who managed the entire process of getting commitments from city agencies and their required support letters, without which there would have been no application. Stay tuned--We are just getting started! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Riverside's Residents Get into the Game!

On October 21, 2010 at the Kingswood Community Center, Riverside residents had an opportunity to meet with two planner/architects from WRT Associates, the firm that is preparing this year's Wilmington Housing Authority's (WHA) HOPE VI application that will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Nov 22, 2010.

In partnership with Roizman Development, Incorporated,WHA has been working very hard the last two months to develop this year's HOPE VI application. WRT Associates, a pioneer in HOPE VI community development is also a critical partner in this effort, and on Thursday, October 21st, WRT came to Riverside to meet specifically with residents to discuss what residents would like too see in a revitalized North East.

On Thursday, October 28th, WHA will be meeting with residents to discuss the development and implementation of a Community Supportive Services (CSS) intiative that would be a critical element of the HOPE VI effort focusing on residents taking the steps in their lives that would lead to self-sufficiency.

On Thursdayy, November 4th, WRT, WHA and Roizman will be meeting with community stakeholders including residents, businesses, religious faith centers and political leaders to unveil the ongoing work of developing a design plan that will faciliate the creation of a new Riverside. Make sure you are there!

2010 Riverside HOPE VI Application Launched!

September 23, 2010 marked the kick off of the 2010 HOPE VI Application for the Riverside community in Northeast Wilmington. The Riverside Initiative, a Blueprint Coommunity and Kingswood Community Center hosted the Wilmington Housing Authority, Roizman Development, Incorporated and WRT Associates provided information to more than 75 community stakeholders including residents, Riverside business owners and managers, local elected officials, several churches and the Wilmington Mosque.

This charette or community meeting was the first of five charettes to come. They are scheduled for Tuesday, October 12th; Thursday, October 21st; Thursday, October 28th and Thursday, November 4th.

The application for this grant will be submitted to HUD on or before November 22, 2010. We hope to see you at one or several of our upcoming charettes.

ATTENTION RIVERSIDE RESIDENTS!!!
GREAT NEWS!!!
We have not given up!!!

Wilmington Housing Authority is preparing to submit its 2010
HOPE VI
Application for the Riverside Community.

Please come out to the planning charettes to hear more about
it and to get involved in the process.
Let your voices be heard!!!

The meetings will begin promptly at 6:00 p.m.
at the Kingswood Community Center.

Thursday, September 23, 2010
Kick-Off Community Dinner Meeting

Thursday, September 30, 2010
HOPE VI planning process Meeting

Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Hope VI Planning Process Meeting

Thursday, October 21, 2010
Hope VI Planning Process Meeting

Thursday, October 28, 2010
Hope VI Planning Process Meeting

Thursday, November 4, 2010
HOPE VI planning process Meeting

The Riverside Community Revitalization Plan

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.

The Riverside Community Revitalization Plan

Executive Summary

In January of 2008, the Riverside community located on the East Side of Wilmington, Delaware received the honor of being identified as a Blueprint Community. Since that time, the Riverside Initiative, consisting of a core team of eight professionals and more than 60 community stakeholders has worked towards developing an initial proposal that will ultimately lead to the development of a comprehensive community revitalization plan. The core team consists of professionals from housing, academia, the faith-based community, local government, and banking and has as its primary goal the development of a flexible process designed to promote sustainable community transformation for the Riverside community. The core team’s binding principle is that integrated and cooperative relationships among all of the stakeholders will provide long-term improvements that will persist after direct private and public investment ends.

The eight members of the core team have received more than nine months of comprehensive technical assistance and training in the area of community development from Blueprint Communities in partnership with the University of Delaware and funded by the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) of Pittsburgh.

The Riverside community, which is also identified as Census Tract 7 by the City of Wilmington, has a total population of a little over 4,000 people with approximately 772 total households. Of the total number of households in Riverside, 534 are owned and managed by the Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA).

The unemployment rate in the Riverside community stands at 9.3% (The national average is just over 6%) and the percentage of the total number of households in Riverside living below the poverty level is 32.7% with 93.7% of families with children under 18 years old living below the poverty level and 34.8% of families with children younger than five years old suffering the same fate.

One of the more telling statistics regarding Riverside is that 32.7% of all households in the Riverside community spend more than 35% of their total income on housing.

In addition to these startling demographics 92.2% of families with children under 18 years old and 34.4% of families with children less than five years old are headed by a single female.

It has been a primary goal from the very beginning of this effort to not only encourage WHA residents to return to the newly revitalized Riverside community, but that residents begin now, to proactively prepare themselves to return to Riverside as citizens who would contribute to the permanent sustainability of the community’s ultimate revitalization. This means making decisions about acquiring viable workforce skills and subsequent employment while simultaneously accepting the responsibility to change behaviors that in the past may have been considered to be counter-productive to the overall health and well being of the Riverside community.

On June 5, 2008, the Riverside Initiative held its first Community Stakeholder meeting with more
than 25 community residents in attendance. In addition, six Riverside business owners and operators joined the meeting, bringing the total attendance to 31.

This first stakeholder meeting was successful from a number of perspectives. First, it provided a forum in which the participants were able to ascertain the values, issues and challenges of the Riverside community.

Second, the core team was able to begin to utilize some of what it had learned in its Blueprint training, particularly information regarding the importance of ensuring that community residents are engaged, even to the point where they assume leadership roles.

Third, the core team had set some specific goals for the first meeting and we were able to accomplish those goals with what we felt was a high level of success. Those goals were to:

Create stakeholder awareness of the Riverside initiative itself, and to gain consensus for the need for revitalization

Create a process that would ensure ongoing stakeholder awareness of the revitalization concept as it changed and was re-shaped by time and involvement

Incorporate stakeholder issues into each phase of the development of the revitalization concept that had the full support and input of the overall community

Assist stakeholders in their developing understanding of the results of the overall revitalization planning effort and to understand and contribute to the development of specific next steps in the ongoing transformation strategy

The second Community Stakeholder meeting was held on June 26, 2008 and the entire meeting was dedicated to the task of developing a vision statement. After four drafts, the stakeholders, numbering more than 50 people at this second meeting, agreed to a final version.

On June 24th, two days prior to this second stakeholder meeting, core team members Eugene Rudder and Irmina Williams had traveled to a community--planning workshop in Philadelphia facilitated by the Wachovia Regional Foundation. During that workshop, the concept of action teams driven by specific issues was shared and both Eugene and Irmina brought that lesson back to Riverside. Consequently, the discussion, early in the process of developing our own vision statement had focused on a series of “community-driven strategic action plans” and ultimately led to the decision by the entire group of stakeholders to create one action team for each issue deemed critical by the community. Those action teams are:

* Housing
* Public Safety
* Senior Issues
* Youth Issues
* Workforce Development
* Business and Economic Development
* Education
* Civic Responsibilities

Each core team member assumed leadership over an action team, and each action team has met several times to discuss the issues surrounding their respective action team. The individual discussion from these meetings is ongoing and will ultimately help to craft the language of the final version of our community revitalization plan.

While the focus of this proposal will be the Housing component of our plan, we will share with you some limited information on the progress of the remaining seven action teams.

Throughout this process, the core team has committed itself to create an environment in which all stakeholders cooperatively develop and implement a transformation strategy and within that process, be explicit about desired outcomes. Our initiative also pointedly requires the engagement of broad resident participation to ensure the success of this overall community change effort.

Stakeholders in Riverside include any institution or individual that has a latent or expressed interest in the community accomplishing its mission and goals. In this Initiative, we recognize the value of stakeholders and everything that we do is driven by the reality of developing the capacity of our stakeholders to act as stewards of their community.

This Initiative is also committed to serving all those who make their home in Riverside and consider residents the most important stakeholders of all. Engaging all of Riverside’s residents and neighbors is a critical way to ensure accountability and legitimacy

Without a doubt, the most valuable lesson gained from the core team’s Blueprint Community training is the reality that the engagement of the citizens of Riverside is the most credible method of recognizing voices that possess important information on how the community revitalization process should proceed.

We have also worked hard to harness the support and participation of outside organizations whose skills and capacity can help our initiative. These entities include the City of Wilmington’s Offices of Planning and Business and Economic and Development, the Kingswood Community Center, the NE Alliance and we have begun exploratory discussions with both a local developer and architect and Christiana Care—a Wilmington based Hospital Corporation.

There are no generic transformation strategies. Revolutionary change in the physical and human revitalization of any community can stem from technological breakthroughs such as green technology, from broad societal, political, social and economic change, or from institutional innovation.

The Community Development Plan ultimately developed by the Riverside Blueprint Communities core team, in collaboration with Riverside residents, businesses and organizational stakeholders has led to the development of a comprehensive HOPE VI application that will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on or before November 22, 2010. This application, seeking a $22 million grant will be part of a larger project of more than $86 million and will result in the construction of a new community center and more than 350 single and multi-family homes that will be a mixture of affordable and market rate homeownership and rental housing. All this began with eight people, brought together under the auspices of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh’s Blueprint Communities initiative.

That is really something!

Upcoming 2010 HOPE VI Charettes

As you may know by now, the Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA)will be pursuing the latest HOPE VI Grant opportunity to come out of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). We will be submitting our application electronically on or before November 22nd of this year and in addition to having to tweak the application we submitted last November, we will also be expanding the scope of the project which among other things, means additional units.

One of the requirements of our 2009 submission was that we hold six (6) community charettes prior to the submission of our application. This time around is no different. The first charette will be held on Thursday, September 23rd and the purpose of this first charette will be to update all of our Community Stakeholders that worked with us during the Blueprint Communities process.This event will be very similar to the December 2008 holiday event which as you may remember, was a huge success and of course we will be sharing with the community details regarding the HOPE VI project. The members of the Blueprint Community core team: Councilwoman Stephanie Bolden, Lynn Buchanan, Carolyn Martin-Pettaway, Dr Will Robinson, Eugene Rudder, Roger Turk, Tanya Washington and Irmina Williams want you to be there, so SAVE THIS DATE: September 23, 2010 at 6:00PM at Kingswood Community Center which of course is located at 2300 Bowers Street in Wilmington, Delaware.

Please feel free to call me should you have any questions.

Just as an FYI, the charettes subsequent to September 23rd are September 30th, October 12th, October 21st,October 28th and November 4th. They will all be informative and hopefully well attended but not as extravagant as the September 23rd charette.

See you soon,
Eugene

Upcoming HOPE VI Charettes

Part of the process of submitting a HOPE VI application is to hold a series of community meetings. This provides an opportunity to present the concept of the application to all stakeholders: residents, businesses, the faith-based community, community-based organizations, political leaders, and other interested parties such as civic associations in and around the neighborhood being impacted by the HOPE VI revitalization. The dates for the community meetings or charettes for this application are as follows:

Thursday, September 23rd at 6:00PM
Thursday, September 30th at 6:00PM
Tuesday, October 12th at 6:00PM
Thursday, October 21st at 6:00PM
Thursday, October 28th at 6:00PM
Thursday, NOvember 4th at 6:00PM

The Thursday, September 23rd charette will be a large affair, complete with a sit-down meal and every effort is being made to have special guests to address the gathering that evening. Each charette is critical however, and while it is not necessary to attend every one, it is recommended that each of you attempt to attend at least two charettes out of the six that are scheduled.

As always, the charettes will be held at the Kingswood Community Center, located at 2300 Bowers Street in Wilmington, Delaware.

More details to come in future posts.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Wilmington Housing Authority joined with the State of Delaware, New Castle County, the City of Wilmington and several community-based organizations to submit on July 30, 2010 a community-wide planning grant application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under HUD's Sustainable Communities Program.

The Wilmington Housing Authority and its Development Partner Roizman Development, Incorporated are preparing a revitalization grant application to be submitted on November 22, 2010 under HUD's HOPE VI Program.

The Wilmington Housing Authority is preparing a grant application to be submitted to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh (FHLB-PGH) on Septmber 9, 2010 under its 2010 Affordable Housing Program to provide down payment and closing costs assistance to homebuyers in a newly revitalized Riverside community.

Riverside Initiative Update--Email to Core Team 3/25/2010

Good afternoon everyone:

Blueprint Communities recently asked me to participate in a Blueprint Communities Advisory Group that they had assembled made up of selected team leaders from all three states: Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware. This morning, the group held its first conference call and dealt with several issues. While we did not get to everything on the agenda (see attachment), we covered a lot of ground, as you will be able to see by my minutes (also attached) regarding the issue of a community being certified and then re-certified as a Blueprint Community.

You will also be able to note that the University has recently received some funding to continue the effort with existing and new teams for a period of two years but that the work is limited to Wilmington area teams which includes all the teams with the exception of Dover. Dover however, will continue to receive TA and training, providing they want it, from different funding.

Should you have any questions or comments, please feel free to call or write me at your earliest convenience.

Two more things: First, allow me to be among the first to wish each of you a glorious and wonderful Easter holiday and that we do not lose sight of why we celebrate Easter in the first place and second, you should know that Dave Buches has been recalled a second time to serve with his reserve unit in Iraq. He shared with me that he will be assigned to the Baghdad airport as part of the drawing down process: getting some of the troops and equipment home and the remaining troops and equipment off to Afghanistan. Please keep Dave in your prayers.

Thank you as always,
Eugene
Eugene John Rudder
Riverside Initiative Team Leader

The Riverside Initiative Presents to Senator Carper

On January 12, 2010, the Wilmington Housing Authority, Kingswood Community Center and Roizman Development, Inc presented their joint vision for the Riverside Community to United States Senator Tom Carper, Debra Jackson-Spence, senior staff person from the office of US Senator Ted Kaufman and Erica Innes from the office of US Representative Mike Castle.

The phased revitalization of Riverside was depicted through a powerful Power Point and three dimensional model developed by the Roizman team and reflected the HOPE VI submission of November 17, 2009.

Senator Carper reiterated his support for the project as did the representatives from the rest of the delegation. All in all, it was a good day.

An Update: January 4, 2010

Hello Everyone:

It has been some time since we have been together, so I wanted to bring you all up to date.

To begin with, as many of you already know, the Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA) in partnership with Kingswood Community Center (KCC) and Roizman Development, Inc (ROI), have submitted a $22 million grant application/proposal to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The application was submitted on November 17, 2009 and it is expected that we will hear back from HUD sometime this spring.

The total value of what we are calling phase one is somewhere just north of $89 million and includes the demolition of 146 severely distressed public housing units and the construction of a senior mid-rise and dozens of single family homes. A brand-new, state-of-the-art Kingswood Community Center will also be built during phase one of the project. Phase two will consist of the remaining Riverside units being demolished and replaced with a mixture of public housing, Section 8 and affordable homeownership opportunities. The number of units for phase two is still undetermined but it is expected to be slightly more than 300 units.

As a Blueprint Community, Riverside has gone from an idea to something that is magnificent and exciting. The planned construction will be driven by energy conservation measures designed to maximize the conservation of utilities while minimizing the community's carbon footprint. Of course, there are many heroes in this story that precede Blueprint by many years. Bernadette Winston, Executive Director of the Kingswood Community Center has spent the last few decades working tirelessly on behalf of Riverside residents and businesses and much of what is happening now is the result of her commitment to Riverside. Her deputy, Nnamdi Chukwuocha, has logged thousands of hours in service to Riverside's youth by not only working on their behalf with organizations such as East Side Charter School, but by working with them at ground level, holding their hands, listening to their stories, encouraging them and showing them by the example of his own life, an alternative to the violence and disparity that seeks to destroy all of us--young an old alike. He and Bernadette also work directly with the Center's staff, including Nnamdi's twin brother, keeping them motivated to do what some think is the impossible but what these fabulous people know is the only thing they can do.

A primary difference between this effort and others like it has been the positive and critical engagement of Riverside's business owners and managers right from the start. Charlie Allen of Northeast Auto Body went well beyond the call of duty in his unshakeable resolve that Riverside is a community deserving of revitalization. Charlie is one of those rare folks who really do put their money where their mouth is. He is, as we all know now, a force to be reckoned with. Also, Kevin Wilson of Architectural Alliance met with the core team in the days immediately following up to the January Blueprint presentation at the University of Delaware. While not a Riverside business, he freely donated his time, resources and staff to draft a set of renderings that in the mind of both the team and the Riverside community, set our presentation apart from the other eight and was the beginning of the design of our current efforts. Thank goodness he is still with us as our architect.

One of the other shining stars of this effort has been the hard and diligent work of our own Councilwoman Stephanie Bolden who made sure that the City Council and other city agencies signed on to our dream. As a member of the core team, her insight, political acuity and just good old common sense saved the day again and again.

Deborah Jackson-Spence of Senator Ted Kaufman’s staff has been a tireless supporter of both WHA and the Riverside Initiative. Deborah is one of those whose work on behalf of Riverside began many years before Blueprint and was one of the very early vocal supporters of our efforts. Deborah introduced me to the wonderful people at NE Alliance and I have been a part of that organization since. Not only have I been asked to give two presentations to the monthly gathering in Riverside, I have learned so much. For those of you who don’t know, NE Alliance is a conglomeration of organizations that work in and around the Northeast of Wilmington and just might be the best kept secret in the entire state when it comes to community service.

The early support and commitment of our Mayor has also been a critical component of our initiative coming this far. He attended our Holiday celebration in December 2008 where he pledged his support to what the Riverside Initiative was working so hard to accomplish. More than 60 resident stakeholders were present that night along with members from the Riverside business sector, political leaders such as State Senator Margaret Henry and senior staff members from each of Delaware's congressional delegation. Mayor Baker told us how proud he was of us, but when we needed the City of Wilmington to truly step up during the preparation of our HOPE VI application to provide the kind of leverage we needed to make the application have any value at all, we were all truly proud of him and his staff.

There are eight members of the core team: Lynn Buchanan, Stephanie Bolden, Carolyn Martin-Pettaway, Roger Turk, Dr. Will Robinson, Tanya Washington, Irmina Williams and myself. Each team member brought their own skill sets and compassion for this initiative to the table. Tanya Washington probably had the hottest fire in her belly because she actually had grown up in Riverside. If not for her, the City of Wilmington's role in the submission of our HOPE VI application might have went differently. Somehow she managed to keep Riverside in front of everyone despite a crippled economy, dwindling sources of government revenue and skepticism. She singlehandedly turned Bill Montgomery into Riverside's biggest cheerleader. I am proud to call each one of them colleague and I am both thrilled and humbled to call each one of them friend. The quiet steadfastness of Lynn Buchanan; the leadership of Councilwoman Stephanie Bolden; the faith and support of Carolyn Martin-Pettaway; the brilliance of Roger Turk, the total commitment to children by Dr. Will Robinson that wowed us all; the enthusiasm and energy of Tanya Washington; the heart and soul of a social worker combined with the intellect of a realist possessed by Irmina Williams; the interest and commitment to change by Riverside businesses and finally, the energy, commitment and strength of more than 60 community residents is what has truly brought us to this point where the kind of collaboration presented by WHA, KCC and RDI is poised to make community development history.

Certainly the training we received as a Blueprint Community has helped to make the kind of community revitalization that we have all dreamed about for some time a real possibility. As we all stand on the brink of success, probably the most powerful message that has come from the stakeholders are the words of WHA's Executive Director, Frederick S. Purnell, Sr. when he pledged that Riverside would be revitalized "HOPE VI or no HOPE VI." What this means is that given the $22 million grant we can move more rapidly towards community redevelopment. Without the grant, we would move slower, but move we would. For a community that has been struggling with crime, unemployment, violence and distressed housing for a very long time, these words of commitment are more stimulating than almost any government initiative.

Without the support of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh (FHLBPGH), Blueprint Communities would have never happened. Back in March of 2008, when all of us gathered at the University of Delaware (UD) to kick off the Delaware Blueprint Community initiative, several distinguished people spoke of what can happen when a community comes together. UD's President spoke eloquently about the role of his university in this great collaboration of business, community and education. Chris Coons, NCCo County Executive gave a rousing and beautiful speech about what has been accomplished in this country in the past and how we have a responsibility to continue this struggle for community in both the present and the future. I was moved by his speech and gratified that he is my County Executive.

There are no words to describe the impact of Dr Peuquet and Professor Jabbar-Bey. As an old civil rights activist (and I mean old literally) and someone who has more recently organized residents living in Washington, DC project based Section 8 units into a force that would purchase and rehabilitate their apartments, I really thought there was little either one of them could teach me about community activism. Boy was I ever so wrong. I learned more in the ten months we spent with them than in any ten year period prior. It is one thing to raise a lot of ruckus and slap each other on the back about how we managed to make life difficult for the "man." It is quite another to actually accomplish something, to change lives, to help people understand that despite what they have been told or despite what has been almost beaten into them, that they are worthy of better.

Lastly, the one port in the storm, the one reliable and sensible and reasonable force throughout this entire experience has been Dave Buches. I cannot tell you how many times he took me aside, encouraging our team to hang in there, to pay attention, that Riverside was the goal and that the people in our community, while they had themselves been engaged, still relied on us to show the way. That is a tremendous responsibility and it is never too late to learn that lesson.

One of the exercises we had during our training was to establish a website/blog on our project. We did that in Google, but that was, for some reason, the end of it. Well, I have recently been bitten by the blog bug and have begun my own blog on the Delaware News Journal site and on Google. While making that happen on Google, lo and behold, the Riverside Initiative website/blog popped up so I have decided to rev it up and make it one of the ways we communicate with Riverside, Wilmington, Delaware, the country, the world. I have posted two documents, both dealing with our HOPE VI application and I expect to see more people do the same. I will of course, continue to post as well, and will alert you when a new post has been placed on the Riverside Initiative blog.

Thanks again for all of your work. It is my sense that this initiative has more than accurately proved that wonderful geometric axiom....."The whole is equal to the sum of its parts."

Peace,
Eugene

RIVERSIDE

COMPREHENSIVE REVITALIZATION PLAN

The Wilmington Housing Authority is pleased to present its vision of the revitalization plan for the Riverside Public Housing Development. The WHA anticipates a comprehensive development approach that engages all members and interested parties of the surrounding community to participate in an overall comprehensive redevelopment and revitalization plan for the area.

Working in concert with the Kingswood Community Center, the WHA has a conceptual plan to integrate their vacant fenced portion of Riverside with the Kingswood Community Center property to construct a designated senior mid-rise building, single family homes, multi-family ownership and rental units, along with a mixed use community center consisting of designated senior space, a multi-purpose room, and an early education center for children ages 0-5 years. Given additional community involvement and support, this building can also be expanded to include a police sub-station and a Neighborhood Network Center providing internet access to both public and non-public housing residents of the community. The scope of this project can only be described in very broad and general terms until all key participants are identified and fully committed to the revitalization effort as the “bigger picture” comes into focus.

It is no secret that the Riverside project and surrounding community is in need of revitalization. The poverty levels are concentrated and the crime rates are high, which led to a disinvestment in this area over time. The WHA proposes to apply for HUD Hope VI funds (FY 2009) to begin the phased redevelopment of the project beginning with the existing vacant portion of the site that is currently fenced off and clearly “separable” from the rest of the property. This is a threshold requirement of HUD when it comes to the HOPE VI application and is a critical component of the redevelopment plan presented herein. The fact that the site is already vacant and approved for demolition gives the WHA additional scoring points on the Hope VI rated and ranked application. It also increases the ability of the WHA to present an expedited completion schedule to HUD for this project. In other words, this project is “shovel ready”. There is no relocation of existing residents to contend with, the demolition was previously approved by HUD and may very well be underway prior to submitting for the grant application.

A HUD Hope VI grant application is a significant step in the neighborhood revitalization process but it requires a significant commitment by other governmental, civic, public and private entities to support, cooperate and contribute to the comprehensive redevelopment of the entire surrounding community. This process requires a true team approach in order to be successful.

There are those who would argue that working from back to front on this project is counterintuitive, as new residents would not want to travel through the old occupied portion of Riverside to get to the revitalized section in the back once it is complete. That is why the WHA engaged the Kingswood Community Center in this process. The mutually beneficial integration of the two properties in the first phase of redevelopment provides for the creation of a transportation corridor with an extension of Rosemont Ave to Bowers Street completing a street grid from Vandever Ave. to Todd’s Lane. Residents of the new community will no longer be forced to travel through the old section of Riverside to get into the new section.

This development approach will help the overall redevelopment process move faster by allowing the WHA to start sooner. It will also create new homes that will be available for the ultimate relocation of the existing Riverside residents. In addition, this will reduce WHA relocation costs as well as the many complications associated with finding 244 existing available units to move the current residents to. This is just one of the hurdles that are avoided by building on the vacant section first instead of starting on the occupied area located closest to Northeast Blvd.

HOPE VI 2009-2010

THE WHA RIVERSIDE/NORTHEAST STABILIZATION AND REDEVELOPMENT PLAN

The Riverside/Northeast Public Housing Site is located on the east side of Wilmington, Delaware and is owned and managed by the Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA). There are 530 public housing units, of which nearly 50% are currently vacant.

Riverside/Northeast Stabilization and Redevelopment Plan Overview

• Demolition of Public Housing Units: The Riverside Target Area is scheduled to begin demolition this fall. One Hundred and Forty-Six (146) public housing units that have been vacant for several years will be demolished and the site cleared for future redevelopment. WHA is in the process of relocating thirty seven (37) families to newly upgraded units within the Riverside/Northeast site to prepare a second contiguous group of seventy eight (78) units for demolition. Total estimated budget for this project is $3 million and is expected to be completed in 1-2 years. Project is being funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds authorized to WHA by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

• Stabilization of Public Housing Units: Neighborhood stabilization will be accomplished by newly renovating sixty (60) public housing units and the elimination of vacant units. With families being able to occupy these newly renovated units, a formerly blighted, boarded up neighborhood with a vacancy rate of nearly 50% will be transformed and stabilized. The rehabilitation of units in Riverside will also be extended beyond the housing units themselves. Exterior improvements and street-scaping will provide new curb appeal. Total estimated budget for this project is $1.3million and is expected to be completed in 6-8 months. Project is being funded by ARRA funds.

Eastlake Court

The WHA is currently breaking ground on a new development of sixteen (16) semi-detached two story homes on a court off 22nd St. consisting of a landscaped open space with trees that will serve to buffer the homes from the Northeast Boulevard. The homes will have three bedrooms and one and one-half baths with off street parking. This community will be known as Eastlake Court. These homes will initially be operated as public housing units but will be made available as a “lease to purchase” option for qualified, income-eligible WHA residents in accordance with WHA’s public housing homeownership program. The Development will be completed in two phases: The first phase will include ten units adjacent to the court to be completed in approximately one year. Total development budget for the first phase is $2.3 million and is fully funded under WHA’s Replacement Housing Factor (RHF) Funds authorized from HUD. The second phase involves the construction of an additional 6 units (to be completed in 6-8 months) and the acquisition of an adjacent vacant lot. Total development budget for the second phase is $1.4 million and will be funded by WHA RHF funds.

Riverside Blueprint Community

In 2008, Riverside was recognized as a Blueprint Community by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh (FHLBPGH). One of the many achievements of that initiative was the establishment of a solid group of community stakeholders comprised of residents, business owners, the faith-based community, local government and the academic community.

Hope VI Application for Riverside

Building upon the progress and successes of the Riverside Blueprint team, particularly in the area of community engagement, WHA is making application in November of this year for a newly authorized HOPE VI grant funding from HUD. WHA will compete for a maximum HOPE VI award of $22 million by creating private sector partnerships and pursuing other potential state and local funding streams. It is WHA’s goal to utilize the HOPE VI funds to assist in the phased demolition and redevelopment of the entire Riverside/Northeast Public Housing Site, as well as to facilitate a future master plan redevelopment of the entire Northeast Boulevard corridor to include housing, infrastructure, business and economic development.