Greenville Business Magazine 2010 July issue : Page 38
BY NICHOLE LIVENGOOD Changeto old Community Revitalization PRojeCts BRing GREENVILLE Regina McCoy, middle, and her family Regina McCoy moved into her new home in the Brutontown community last July. Greenville County Redevelopment Authority (GCRA) is heading up a project to revitalize the community consist- ing of 40 acres between Rutherford Road and Poinsett Highway, utilizing funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Community Development Block Grant, the Home Investment Part- nership (HOME) Program and Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG). The goal of these funds and organizations like Homes of Hope, Genesis Homes and Habitat for Humanity is to eliminate slums and blight and meet the specific urgent needs in the community for low to moderate income individuals where no other funding is available.GCRA is responsible for the administra- tion of federal grant funding to local redevelopment organizations and works with them to get these communities back on their feet. 38 GREENVILLEBUSINESSMAG.COM | JULY 2010 Brutontown, is just one example of the positive impact these funds have had on Greenville’s lowest income communities. GCRA began acquiring property in Brutontown in 2002. When their work is completed, 80 new bunga- low and craftsman style homes will be available for rent or sale. McCoy was attracted to the community because she could pick her own floor plan and be a part of the building process for her new home. She also liked the brand Photograph cby Nill Silver Photography
Community Revitalization Projects Bring Change to Old Greenville
Nicole Livengood
Regina McCoy moved into her new home in the Brutontown community last July. Greenville County Redevelopment Authority (GCRA) is heading up a project to revitalize the community consisting of 40 acres between Rutherford Road and Poinsett Highway, utilizing funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Community Development Block Grant, the Home Investment Partnership (HOME) Program and Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG). The goal of these funds and organizations like Homes of Hope, Genesis Homes and Habitat for Humanity is to eliminate slums and blight and meet the specific urgent needs in the community for low to moderate income individuals where no other funding is available. GCRA is responsible for the administration of federal grant funding to local redevelopment organizations and works with them to get these communities back on their feet.
Brutontown, is just one example of the positive impact these funds have had on Greenville’s lowest income communities. GCRA began acquiring property in Brutontown in 2002. When their work is completed, 80 new bungalow and craftsman style homes will be available for rent or sale.
McCoy was attracted to the community because she could pick her own floor plan and be a part of the building process for her new home. She also liked the brand new community center which offers after school programs and other children’s activities, as well as programs for the elderly and a brand new computer lab.
“It was important for us to have a place to go and socialize,” says McCoy. She grew up in Greenville in a community like Brutontown and remembers growing up at the community center. Because of a partnership with Greenville County Recreation, the center will be a vibrant hub of activity and a draw for families like McCoy who are looking for a nice neighborhood to raise their family.
Some of McCoy’s neighbors are finding assistance in the Owner Occupied Home Repair program which offers funding to homeowners in need of major home repair. The assistance is to be used for things like repairing or replacing old roofs, and updating outdated plumbing and electrical systems. Seniors and disabled citizens can get repair help through this program at little to no cost.
Mark Livingston of GCRA explains that the long rang goal of community revitalization is to improve the community and increase the quality of life. “By September, Brutontown will have some sidewalks and we will be repaving Old Paris Mountain Road.”
Genesis Homes has just built nine living units in the Greenline-Spartanburg Street Community, Hollywood Circle and Mount Zion Communities. Genesis Homes is a nonprofit organization focused on revitalizing low to moderate income neighborhoods in the Upstate.
“The first thing we have to do in a community like Greenline-Spartanburg where there is low ownership is we want to do something to kick start the neighborhood,” says Jim Childress, the chairman of the board of Genesis. “We’ll start out with a spec home and when that sells, we’ll build another one.” Homes are made available first, to the current residents of the neighborhood.
By layering funding from grants, they are able to get about 75 percent of the funding needed to build, and pad the rest with loans from the bank, which allows them to keep rent and loan payments in a range that a low to moderate income individual can afford. Because of restrictions on federal funding, most of the money from grants must be used to house people within the low to moderate income range, or people falling below 50 percent of the median income for the area. The homes may be for low to moderate income, but they wouldn’t appear so.
The homes these organizations are building are sustainable. “We don’t use cheap materials,” says Don Oglesby of Homes of Hope. “We use cheap money.”
They use hearty board siding, all of the houses have oversized front porches, and the homes are certified energy efficient with all new appliances. “Most of the people moving into these homes have never had a dishwasher before,” says Oglesby, much less an energy efficient washer and dryer.
It takes a partnership between the City, the county and all of these organizations to bring change to the 13 special emphasis neighborhoods in Greenville that meet HUD’s definition of low to moderate income areas. The City develops master plans for these communities, and then relies heavily on partnering organizations to get the job done.
“These neighborhoods are rich in resources, history, and architecture. The master plans help insure that residents who have lived there all of their lives can continue to live in their neighborhoods,” says Ginny Stroud, the City’s Community Development Administrator.
Evelyn Dogan lives in the Greenline-Spartanburg Community. She moved there in 1939 when she was just 6 years old. She has seen neighbors come and go and many of the houses around her fall into terrible states of disrepair. She is on the board of Greenline and is happy to see new houses going up in her community. Three have been completed so far, and she took advantage of assistance to have her home made handicap accessible after having to have knee surgery.
“They came out and put me a ramp up and a shower in my bathroom,” she says.
In the Haynie-Sirrine community four years ago, seniors in danger of losing their homes due to structural problems were identified. Childress explains that two duplexes and two 2 bedroom/1 bath homes were built in the neighborhood and filled quickly.
“Most of these people have never had central air,” he says. “Work in the community started in 2008 and it was the first new construction in over 50 years! Projects like these begin to give residents hope that here is something better.”
Homes of Hope has been focusing its energy in the West Greenville area, working in the Haynie-Sirrine, Sterling, Green Avenue, and Southern Side communities. They have built 100 plus houses in these neighborhoods alone.
“We worked hand in hand with the neighborhood association and the city on these projects,” says Oglesby, the organization’s director. “We were smart enough to say ‘what do you need,’ not ‘here’s what you need,’ when we went into these communities,” he says. “Our goal is to make livable, workable neighborhoods. If everything is slum or blight it won’t attract new homeowners. Pockets of poverty have developed in the past 40 years. We are trying to find a balance.”
Homes of Hope has 29 lots at Chicora Crest where 18 homes are being built for moderate to middle class families and 11 affordable rental properties are being constructed. The builder for all of the properties is the same, which Oglesby hopes will help destigmatize low income individuals and renters.
Mark Livingston explains that a continuum of housing, a blending of income ranges in the same community, is the goal for many of these communities. It will take a while to get higher income individuals to move into once lower income areas, but once the communities are stabilized, they will slowly begin to turn around. GBM
Previous Page Next Page
Publication List
