Housing GSO: HRA Greensboro Affordable Housing Plan

NEIGHBORHOOD REINVESTMENT

PARTNER WITH NEIGHBORHOODS | Overview

The City can begin to overcome disinvestment in historically segregated areas of Greensboro by pursuing focused neighborhood reinvestment. Many areas of Greensboro, particularly in the south and east, have suffered from disinvestment, partly a result of decades of discriminatory housing policy nationwide. Such policies forced residents to live in neighborhoods characterized by low property values, blight, and racial and economic segregation. Targeted reinvestment efforts should be deployed to rehabilitate substandard housing, offer support for affordable homeownership, and stabilize neighborhoods with self-sustaining residential markets. The process of determining candidate neighborhoods must balance careful market analysis with neighborhood capacity and must represent a combination of top-down evaluation and bottom-up partnership. Historically, top-down neighborhood reinvestment strategies have been ineffective or damaging to communities of color. The City should partner with existing neighborhood leadership structures and develop implementation committees at the community level. These committees should be made up of neighborhood leadership and residents and be supported by NDD and the philanthropic sector. These committees, coupled with sustained engagement, will inform the phasing, programs, and funding of the reinvestment process. NDD can identify candidate neighborhoods using the metrics and recommendations outlined in Housing GSO (see Appendix). Simultaneously, NDD should engage community members and neighborhood leaders within the candidate neighborhoods to assess their interest in partnering in the reinvestment process. NDD should prepare a memo with recommended neighborhoods for Council, in order to confirm planned deployment of focused reinvestment efforts. There areas of reinvestment are separate and distinct from the Planning Department’s existing redevelopment areas (such as Willow Oaks, South Elm, and Ole Asheboro), which will require more extensive public intervention to stabilize. The City should recommend candidate neighborhoods for focused reinvestment activities. Focused reinvestment efforts to rehab housing, support homeownership and stabilize blocks can begin to reverse decades of systematic disinvestment.

Key Partners • City of Greensboro – NDD, Planning • Neighbors and community organizations in candidate areas for reinvestment • Philanthropic partners

Action Steps

1. Confirm and conduct data analysis to identify and recommend candidate neighborhoods for reinvestment 2. Prepare a memo recommending candidate neighborhoods and focused reinvestment strategy for confirmation with Council

3. Assess interest from candidate neighborhoods

4. Engage philanthropic sector and private entities about willingness to support neighborhood planning activities

HR&A Advisors, Inc.

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