Neighborhoods

On every side of Youngstown, there are streets with vacant lots where houses once stood — and where houses could be built once again.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation estimates there are 25,000 vacant parcels in the city.

To read the full story from WKBN, click here. 

The Business Journal roundtable on repopulating the Mahoning and Shenango valleys took place Feb. 15 at Waypoint 4180 in Canfield. Participating were Christopher Colon, Guy Coviello, Angelica Diaz, James Kinnick, Emil Liszniansky, Lisa Long, Jake Rickert, Julie Michael Smith and Nancy Voitus.

Colon is a co-founding director of Thrive Mahoning Valley, which works on welcoming immigrants and refugees. Coviello is president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. Diaz is executive director of Youngstown OCCHA, the Organization Civica y Cultural Hispana Americana, a nonprofit social services agency. Kinnick is the executive director of the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. Liszniansky is a consultant with Envision and special projects coordinator for Eastgate. Long is financial resources development director of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation and its CEO-designate. Rickert is director of workforce development at Penn-Northwest Development Corp. Smith is a consultant to Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition and is working with its counterpart in Mercer and Lawrence counties, Pa. Voitus is executive director of Catholic Charities Regional Agency, also a nonprofit social services agency that has served Greater Youngstown since the late 19th century. 

To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here. 

Thursday, March 14, 2024. 

Bonnie’s roof had a large hole in it, which was slowly leaking into her 2nd Ward home, causing the ceiling to unexpectedly cave in on her bedroom. Bonnie said, "I almost got seriously hurt. I heard water trickling, but didn't know the roof was messed up." The water was slowly being absorbed in the attic insulation which became so heavy, half of the ceiling came down on her bed while she was sleeping. YNDC replaced Bonnie’s roof and there are no more leaks! Bonnie loves her home and her neighborhood and is so grateful to be able to stay in her house, where she has lived since 1989. Bonnie said, “I speak very highly of YNDC’s roof replacement program.”  This new roof was made possible by The Affordable Housing Program of Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati. 

Monday, March 18, 2024. 

On Friday, February 9, The Mercy Health Foundation Mahoning Valley awarded a $150,000 grant to the Glenwood Fresh Market.

The market, located at 2915 Glenwood Avenue, provides year-round access to FREE fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy food items for residents of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. The market also provides free health screenings, nutrition literacy courses, cooking demonstrations, and other health resources to members. The Mercy Health Foundation Mahoning Valley and Mercy Health's Community Health team are primary partners in the Glenwood Fresh Market. Hats off to The Mercy Health Foundation Mahoning Valley for their ongoing support and partnership!

Monday, March 18, 2024. 

The Taft Elementary School Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Travel Plan continues to pay dividends with the recent completion of a project to install pedestrian scale lighting on the streets adjacent to the school. YNDC developed the Taft SRTS Travel Plan in 2014 in collaboration with the City of Youngstown, Youngstown City School District, students, parents of students, and other stakeholders. The plan has since resulted in multiple SRTS infrastructure awards that have been used to improve crossings, replace sidewalks, install missing sidewalk connections, improve signage, install bike racks, and most recently to install pedestrian scale lighting. The Taft Travel Plan was the first travel plan completed in Youngstown and was prioritized because the school has the highest percentage of students that live within walking distance. Thank you to everyone involved in the travel plan and ongoing implementation!
 

Monday, March 18, 2024. 

YNDC worked with the City of Youngstown, Councilman Julius Oliver, and the Mahoning County Land Bank to develop the Bernard Street project in 2023. Councilman Oliver supported the award of $725,000 in American Rescue Plan funding from the City of Youngstown to support the project.

YNDC began the project by working with the Mahoning County Land Bank to assemble all of the vacant land on the north side of Bernard Street. YNDC assisted the homeowner at 321 Glenwood Avenue with critical exterior repairs. YNDC has also surveyed and replatted the lots on the north side of Bernard Street.

In March 2024, YNDC began clearing the north side of Bernard Street to prepare for the construction of three new homes to be sold to homeowners. YNDC has removed more than 550 cubic yards of debris, dead trees, and vegetation. Once the clearing is complete, the next phase will be construction. YNDC anticipates beginning construction in the coming months. 

Leigh is currently the Director of Community Health for Mercy Health Youngstown, beginning her journey with the ministry May 31, 2021. Leigh graduated in 2020 with her master’s in social services administration with the concentration: Community Practice for Social Change from Case Western Reserve University.

Prior to her position with Mercy Health, she was the director of the Youngstown Office on Minority Health for the Youngstown City Health District. Her role in the position was to inform, educate and empower the minority populations to take a more preventative and proactive role in their health. She is the co-chair to the Greater Youngstown Community Dialogue on Racism (GYCDOR).

To her credit she co-produced with members from GYCDOR and MY Baby’s 1st the video “Dads Do Matter” (that can be found on YouTube). The video project specifically targets at risk fathers, by providing education and real-life experiences of young fathers. Leigh was a navigator for Access Health Mahoning Valley enrolling individuals without insurance into the ACA. For 18 years she worked as the Social Service Director for a skilled nursing facility.

Leigh is currently a board member of the Western Reserve Foundation, Healthy Community Partnership, as well as being involved in equity and maternal coalitions. Leigh is member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Youngstown Alumnae Chapter and the National Association of Social Work. She is a member of Tabernacle Baptist Church. Her joy is that she is the mother of two adult sons David and Desmond.

Her passion is to enhance the work of the office, concentrating her efforts on health equity, removing barriers to access care, and improving social determinates as it relates to quality of life for residents living in Youngstown and surrounding areas. 
 

Wednesday, March 20, 2024. 

On Wednesday, March 20, 2024, YNDC and project partners broke ground on the construction of two duplexes that will be located at 3017 and 3029 Glenwood Avenue. The new construction project will create four apartment units each with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open concept living, kitchen, dining area, and in-unit laundry. Each unit will also have covered and visitor parking. The units are approximately 1,100 square feet each.

The project is made possible through funding support from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh's Affordable Housing Program (FHLB) and the City of Youngstown's HOME program. PNC Bank served as YNDC's partner and member bank for the FHLB application. PNC is also providing the construction financing for the project. The vacant lots were provided by the Mahoning County Land Bank. The builder for the project is Joe Koch Construction. The project also received support from The Raymond John Wean Foundation, Sixth Ward Councilwoman Anita Davis, surrounding neighbors, and the Glenwood Neighbors Business Association. Many thanks to all involved in making this project possible!

The U.S. Senate early Saturday passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan government funding package, which includes more than $2 million for Mahoning County. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, voted to approve the package that invests in Ohio, increases resources for border security, supports Ohio military installations and helps combat the addiction crisis. U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Cincinnati, was one of 24 senators who voted against the spending package in a session that ended around 2 a.m.

“This bipartisan package supports Ohio military installations, helps get border agents the support they need, and invests in communities across Ohio – from the Great Lakes to Piketon,” Brown said in a news release. “These critical investments will deliver on community projects proposed by Ohioans across the state, and help to do everything from cleaning up Lake Erie to making our communities safer.”

This is the second of two bipartisan funding packages needed to keep the government open. The first bipartisan bill to fund half the government was signed into law on March 9. This new package builds on that work and funds the remainder of the federal government through the rest of the fiscal year. Among the funds coming to Mahoning County is $1.45 million to the OH WOW! Center for Science and Technology in downtown Youngstown to provide advanced project-based learning for training and education in various STEM fields.

Also receiving a large financial boost is the COMPASS Family and Community Services COMPASS Campus of Care on the border of Austintown and Weathersfield townships. The money will be used for the renovation of a building to provide a behavioral health care / adult care / assisted living facilities for individuals living with severe and persistent mental illnesses.

The third recipient of funds from the government spending package is Direction Home of Eastern Ohio in Austintown, which received $239,000 for its Kinship Summer Camp in partnership with Easterseals. The camp’s intent is to provide respite for family members and caregivers, learning opportunities for the elderly and family stabilization.

PREVIOUS FUNDING

Earlier this month, it was announced that more than $22 million in federal funds will be coming to Mahoning and Trumbull counties — as part of another government spending agreement between the U.S. House and Senate — including $6.16 million to resurface the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport’s primary runway and $4.2 million for a waterline in Lordstown. The package, which had more than 6,500 earmarks totaling $12.7 billion, includes several other big-ticket items for Mahoning and Trumbull counties. The Youngstown Air Reserve Station, adjacent to the airport, is receiving $2.5 million from this package for planning and design work for a new fire station. The station is estimated to cost $25 million. The village of Lordstown will get $4.2 million to make improvements to its water distribution system by replacing the Pritchard Ohltown Road water station and installing a redundant 24-inch waterline from Meander Reservoir. The projects at the airport, YARS and Lordstown were the three funded in Trumbull County at a total of $12.86 million. Eight projects in Mahoning County would receive a total of $9.80 million from Congress.

That includes $2.5 million each for Flying HIGH Inc., a Youngstown-based nonprofit, to help with infrastructure needed for housing development in the county, and for the Mahoning Valley Community School in Youngstown for a community learning center on the city’s South Side. The school purchased the former Job and Family Services building at 2026 South Ave. to turn it into a community learning center with plans to include a gymnasium, cafeteria, additional workforce development classrooms, a wellness center, a media center and a child-care facility. Youngstown received $1,284,652 for an interceptor sewer replacement and combined sewer overflow elimination project, $1.2 million to replace waterlines with lead in them and $400,000 for a transportation study for the East Side with a focus on looking at ways to connect it to an Interstate 80 interchange at state Route 304.

Also, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. would get $1.02 million for its ongoing effort to renovate the former Foster Theater on the city’s South Side into housing and businesses.

To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here. 

The U.S. Senate has narrowly avoided a government shut down with the approval of a $1.2 trillion spending package that would help fund key national concerns like border security and public school funding. President Biden has signed the bill, called the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, which will provide funding through September 30 of this year. The six-bill funding package contains funding for 32 projects throughout the state, totaling to more than $28 million. More than $10 million that is slated to come to the Mahoning Valley. The lion's share of funding will go to Mahoning County, with Columbiana next and only one project being funded in Trumbull County from this money.

Below is the full list of all the dollars expected to come to the valley and where it will go:

Mahoning County:

COMPASS Campus of care: Renovating a building to provide a behavioral healthcare/adult care/assisted living facility for individuals living with severe and persistent mental illness, $750 thousand.

Direction Home of Eastern Ohio: To support the organization's Kinship Summer Camp Program, $239 thousand.

Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation: For the redevelopment of a vacant and blighted theatre in Youngstown into a multi-purpose building with living and commercial space.

To read the full story from WFMJ, click here.