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Since 1997, Community Builders has focused on developing large-scale
projects that can anchor comprehensive neighborhood revitalization
efforts. We now focus our real estate development, property management,
and community initiatives capacities on the challenges of concentrated
poverty in and around large public and assisted housing projects.
Despite the economic prosperity of the 1990s, enclaves of concentrated
poverty continue to plague urban neighborhoods. Often dominated
by large, distressed housing complexes, these neighborhoods struggle
with high unemployment, drugs, crime, failing schools, disinvestment,
and limited economic opportunities.
Resources typically available for community development projects
- such as federal HOME, CDBG, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and
City and State Capital funds - have fallen short in addressing concentrated
poverty. The ability to mount large-scale redevelopment initiatives
capable of transforming these neighborhoods has been a critical
missing element in our urban policy to date.
As a leading developer in the HOPE VI program, we bring a unique
combination of experience, technical skills and problem-solving
ability to these redevelopment challenges.
Our diverse multidisciplinary staff works with local partners to
build consensus around a vision of a revitalized community, then
uses our planning, development and finance skills to turn the vision
into reality. Typically several hundred units in size, these new
communities house thousands of residents.
Using large-scale housing developments as a platform, Community
Builders engages in neighborhood planning, housing and community
facilities development, property management, and service coordination
to build and sustain vital communities. As owner, manager, and service
coordinator for these properties, Community Builders engages employers,
workforce development service providers, local school administrators,
youth development organizations, and family support providers in
developing an integrated service delivery system at the neighborhood
level. We push for systemic change in neighborhood service delivery
- an outcomes orientation, use of proven program models, and performance
measurement. Through extensive site-based community building efforts,
we grow capacity for effective advocacy to protect neighborhood
gains and advance plans for continued improvement.
We are currently undertaking comprehensive neighborhood revitalization
projects in Louisville (KY), Cincinnati (OH), Chicago (IL), Pittsburgh
(PA), Wheeling (WV), Indianapolis (IN), New Haven (CT), Philadelphia
(PA), New Brunswick (NJ), Coatesville (PA), Durham (NC), and Norfolk
(VA).
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