SitemapLast year, with three kids and another on the way, Jonathan Ellis and his wife were in serious need of a new home.
Their apartment couldn’t hold their growing family, but Ellis’ poor credit disqualified him from a traditional mortgage. The family’s pastor suggested they talk to the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.
“We’d never bought a house before,” says Ellis. “We met with [the development corporation] regularly to establish a budget and pay off previous debts. We also took a homeownership class about [getting] a loan and handling closing costs.”
Youngstown Neighborhood Development was established in 2009 to assist residents like Ellis with financial counseling and lead efforts in home rehabilitation, neighborhood stabilization and cleanup.
In 2014, the organization expanded its efforts with the Revitalize program, which focuses on reviving entire neighborhoods and ramping up community assistance through initiatives such as counseling and homeownership education.
“We wanted to increase the scale of our work [from what we’d done since 2009],” says Ian Beniston, the nonprofit's executive director. “What we’ve done over the last year is [build capacity] on all levels, which means very detailed neighborhood [revitalization] plans.”
The Revitalize initiative has repaired more than 100 street lights, created plans for eight transitional neighborhoods, provided 19 first-time mortgages and opened Glenwood Community Park. The program rehabilitated 22 homes in 2014 alone, the majority of which did not require any government subsidies. Beniston estimates that the initiative has assisted more than 20,000 Youngstown residents.
A new partnership with the federal community service organization AmeriCorps provides a steady stream of volunteers and resources needed to complete such projects, says Beniston, allowing his development corporation to accomplish more than it could have alone.
One AmeriCorps employee, Elena Rapone, is stationed at the development corporation and works closely with Revitalize neighborhood cleanups, landscaping and home remodeling.
“It breaks my heart to see little kids running around a neighborhood with so many vacant houses and broken glass on the sidewalks,” says Rapone. “To know that our efforts make it a cleaner and safer place makes me happy to go into work every day.”
With the help of Revitalize, Ellis began to pay off his previous debt and improved his credit score enough to qualify for Youngstown Neighborhood Development’s Community Loan Fund, which helps new homebuyers who get rejected for mortgages by traditional banks.
Last year, the Ellises moved into a four-bedroom, two-bathroom remodeled brick home in a neighborhood that Youngstown Neighborhood designated for revitalization. They settled in just in time to welcome the newest addition to the family in January 2015.
“[Youngstown Neighborhood Development] changed our lives,” says Ellis. “My credit score continues to improve, and we have a home that’s large enough for all six of us.”
To read the full story at IBmag.com, click here.