Building Vital Communities

by Becky Sherblom

Ms. Millie called the Frederick Community Action Agency seeking weatherization assistance.   At 72 years old, she was finding it difficult to keep her home warm.  When the staff went to evaluate Ms. Millie's home, they found that her mobile home was so dilapidated that it could not be insulated and weatherized, had roof leaks and extensive exterior damage.   There was also no running water, and no indoor plumbing – Ms. Millie had been using a bedside commode that she would empty out on her one-acre property.  On a limited income, Ms. Millie was forced to live in deplorable conditions.  Instead of trying to patch the inadequate home, the agency set out to raise the funds needed to build Ms. Millie a new house, using a variety of funding sources and some volunteer help.  Ms. Millie's new modular home was built and ready for occupancy in just six months.  Her success was also a community success, because a run down property was removed, and a neighbor was helped to stay in the community.

There are many stories like Ms. Millie's because the landscape in Maryland is dotted with more than 150 nonprofits dedicated to housing and community development.  In the best sense, a community development corporation is a nonprofit organization that grows from the community it is meant to serve, that has within its structure the voice of the community along with the technical skills and capacity to produce housing units, deliver programs, hold itself accountable and evaluate the impact of the resulting improvements.  These corporations help stabilize at-risk and undervalued neighborhoods by making the residents stakeholders in their own futures, thereby strengthening neighborhoods and the ties of neighbors.  They do all of this while being respectful of the community's voice and need to control their collective future.

Not Just Housing, Community Development

In Maryland, the field has been traditionally focused on housing: building and renovating to increase the supply of housing, especially affordable housing, within communities and enacting neighborhood stabilization through housing rehabilitation initiatives.  There is a mix of types of housing and incomes served; units are designed and built within the character of the existing fabric of the area while linking them to services, programs, open space, and other things that improve quality of life.

Increasingly over the past ten years, these organizations have realized that housing alone is not a strategy for community development or revitalization.  Organizations such as Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity in Baltimore City, Housing Unlimited in Montgomery County, Interfaith Housing Alliance in Western Maryland and Druid Heights Community Development Corporation of Baltimore City are all examples of nonprofits doing this work.   Many have expanded their programs to address commercial revitalization, undertake market analysis for their neighborhood in order to determine what type of business development might make sense, and to organize and facilitate the development of a plan so that government, business and others looking to come into the community understand what the residents want for themselves.  

Financial education is an important element in the work of community development corporations.  These organizations, such as Tri-Churches Housing Inc., and Belair-Edison Neighborhoods, Inc., link their residents with financial education so they can build savings and eventually purchase a valuable asset such as a home.  By connecting residents with workforce development efforts, people can secure better paying jobs with higher wages that translate into improved situations for families and more money flowing through the entire community.  These types of nonprofit housing and community development organizations are a combination of a traditional developer who can survive on developer fees, and a traditional social service agency that needs contracts, grants, and donations to fund its services.   A community development corporation will have a budget that is both organizational and for project-development.  The organization may have a core budget that includes a staff of four, and then a housing development project budget of several million dollars because a multi-unit development project will take several years to complete, and may or may not bring profit back to the organization, especially after considering the typical development issues of weather delays and construction cost overruns.

Housing counseling and homeownership programs may also be offered in order to educate and prepare community residents for home ownership.  Programs like this usually need a full time staff person who knows marketing, program design and implementation, case management and one-on-one counseling.  Teaching skills and partnership collaboration building skills are also part of the job because the staff person will need to set up and deliver homebuyer workshops, financial literacy classes, undertake outreach to lending institutions and local real estate agents, as well as report on grants to both public and private sector funders.

Strengthening Neighborhoods

Strengthening our neighborhoods and changing peoples' lifestyles is not easy; what community development corporations accomplish is complex.  Yes, it's about building vital neighborhoods in areas that traditionally have not seen positive market dynamics as well as meeting community needs with retail opportunities, affordable housing and public spaces.   But it's more than that.  Community development is different from simple real estate development.  Instead, community development is about building from the assets of the community for the sake of the community that includes the people who already live and work there, or who may be attracted by the positive changes to move into that community.  They strengthen our neighborhoods and improve the quality of life for residents.  To be successful, Maryland's housing and community development organizations need your support, both with hands-on volunteer hours and with much needed financial donations.

Becky Sherblom is Executive Director of the Maryland Center for Community Development, a nonprofit, 501(c)3 membership organization dedicated to being a catalyst for investment in housing and community economic development to strengthen communities throughout the state.