Spotlight Buffalo: Heart of the City, Inc.

On a single street in Buffalo, two opposite ends of the spectrum sit side by side.

On the left is what amounts to a brand new house, an eco-friendly, well-landscaped home ready for occupation with no repairs necessary. On the right, a city-owned vacant lot on which a home used to sit.

The difference between the two lots is what Heart of the City Neighborhoods, Inc. is all about. Since 1998 the not-for-profit Community Development Agency has worked on Buffalo’s lower West Side, strategically purchasing vacant properties and renovating them with the help of grants.

The homes are gutted and completely refurbished with new plumbing, electric, and landscaping work. Heart of the City attempts to make the residences eco-friendly as well, with rainwater collected for watering plants and brand new insulation. Homes are then sold to eligible first-time homeowners at a greatly discounted rate.

The goal for Heart of the City is to not only address the vacancy issues in the West Side, but to stabilize neighborhoods as well.

“When you buy a property from us you have to stay in the property for a series of years, for maybe 5-10 years,” said Stephanie J. Simeon, executive director of Heart of the City, Inc. “That stabilizes a neighborhood with one family.”

Heart of the City also forms a block club whenever they move to a different street, a “signature” project of theirs that helps to further tie neighborhoods together.

“Once we are done with our development we still have vested community members who stick around and still have the same interests,” she said. “They want to finish what we started.”

Simeon noted that their investment in a neighborhood often forces others to invest their own time and money to fix their own properties. Having a brand new home on your block is good for property value, but it also may make the paint on your own home seem a bit faded.

“No one wants to have the worst house on the street,” she said with a laugh.

Heart of the City’s latest project, 263 Hudson, offers a unique look at what they do differently than the City of Buffalo when it comes to the vacancy issues in the city. While the city-owned lot next door lies empty, Heart of the City has a brand new home ready to house a family for the long-term. Heart of the City wasn’t able to purchase the lot next door, but was told the new owner of 263 Hudson can buy the property in the future.

Simeon feels a strength of HOTC is their ability to look past cosmetic issues with houses and take risks most purchasers are unwilling to. They’ve pulled three homes off the city’s demolition list, homes that are far from lost causes.

“We’re not just looking at (building) code,” Simeon said. “We’re looking at how can this greatly change the quality of life for the other residents on the street by taking this vacant home, gutting it, and putting a new family into it.”

Future projects for HOTC include three adjacent properties on Hudson, where they plan to build two townhouses. They’d also like to move off Hudson Street to Whitney Place, where there are six vacancies between Hudson and Virginia to pursue.

Their goal is to continue working off the same streets to further stabilize the community. By keeping their efforts centralized, Simeon says it will “show the community that we are a dedicated developer.”

2009 has been a big year for the not-for-profit, which has been able to secure a number of grants with their hard-working staff of just three. They plan to add more staff in anticipation of their new projects, but their successes with so little is very impressive.

“I’ve been really pleased at the way we’ve been able to expand what we do,” said Jessica Keltz, vice president and Board of Trustees member. “Most of us give the credit to Stephanie.”

Massachusetts Avenue Project

We wanted to highlight some positive news in the local non-profit community as a balance to some of the more negative stories we ran this week.

This week, as part of our ongoing BuffaloStyle Series, we turned our cameras onto the remarkable efforts of the Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) and their Growing Green Program.  As usual, Christina and Marc did a wonderful job capturing the essence of a growing Buffalo organization.

In 2008, MAP received a $100K grant from the 21st Century Fund to underwrite several aspects of their expanding program.

The $100,000 grant will be used to support the creation of MAP’s Community Food Resource and Micro Enterprise Center on Buffalo’s West Side. The Center will increase West Side residents’ access to affordable nutritious food and increase their capacity to earn a living through business and job training.

Last year, an informative podcast by UB Law’s Jim Milles addressed the issue of food deserts in Erie County with local subject matter experts, a worthy listen.  MAP’s multi-faceted and green approach to addressing food deserts in our urban core is remarkable and innovative.

Their efforts to expand food choices for the West Side community through their mobile market is a sustainable way to address the issue of food justice.

Imagine having access to an abundance of healthy food produced by people you trust and from land you know and love. It’s a bird. It’s a plane! . . . No, it is Buffalo Grown Mobile Market coming to a neighborhood near you. We anticipate that by harvest time, something new will be sprouting up around town. We have painted our RV into a giant eggplant and have retrofitted the interior. An interactive food experience, the MM brings fresh fruits and vegetables, bulk food like rice and beans, prepared goodies, and fun food facts and nutrition info. We will visit 4 different areas with fresh and healthy food, nutrition education and even some public theater.

Take some time to learn more about MAP and consider giving your support, time or resources to their organization.

Volunteers Needed for Project Homeless Connect

In fall of 2008, the United States Census Bureau released a special report naming Buffalo as the third poorest large city in the United States, with approximately one-third of its adult population living below the poverty line, and 42% of its children living in poverty. Approximately 2,000 people (including people in families) are homeless on any given night, a number that has not changed dramatically in recent years.

On July 17th, the WNY Coalition for the Homeless in partnership with the Homeless Alliance of WNY, Neighborhood Legal Services and the City of Buffalo will be bringing Project Homeless Connect to Buffalo for the first time.

Project Homeless Connect is a national best practice model that was pioneered in San Francisco in 2004 and has since spread to over 200 communities around the world. The event brings all sorts of service providers and resources to one place, on one day, to connect with the community’s homeless and near-homeless population. Homeless individuals will receive onsite services as well as information and referrals.

Buffalo’s Project Homeless Connect will take place at the:

Buffalo Convention Center
July 17th 10am-6pm

For more information visit our website at:

http://projecthomelessconnectbuffalo.org/

We are still in need of about a 100 volunteers to help with the activities of the day. We are asking volunteers to sign up for either a morning shift (that will begin with set up at 8am and will end at 2pm) or an afternoon shift (that will begin at 2pm and end with tear down at 8pm). If you can only commit to parts of either of the shifts, that is also fine.

If you’re interested in volunteering please email Joyelle Tedeschi at wnyhomeless@gmail.com and visit the Volunteer Opportunities section of our website.

The goal of the event is to bring the entire community together to reach out to some of the most marginalized and neglected folks in the area and directly provide them with important services they are not able to afford. While not a solution in itself to the root economic and social causes of poverty and homeless, Project Homeless Connect is a vital step towards building a broad based public-private movement to end homelessness and poverty in Buffalo.

We need your help to make this event a success.