Habitat for Humanity is expanding its mission beyond building houses. The Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) will help existing homeowners to repair and enhance their homes, sometimes with paint, sometimes with weatherization, sometimes with a smidgen of plain old elbow-grease.
The idea is that, in addition to building new homes, the over-all atmosphere and condition of a neighboorhood can be improved with some relatively low-cost and low-tech work on the existing housing stock.
Metro Denver Habitat will apply NRI principles in its work in the Globeville neighborhood. Globeville is a near-forgotten Denver neighborhood which was split in two by the construction of I-70 many years ago. One quarter of Globeville residents are below the poverty level. Metro Denver Habitat will rehab 11 townhomes in Globeville and build 16 additional townhomes. This drew the attention of the Denver Post this past weekend:
Based on feedback from Globeville's Civic Associations, Habitat of Metro Denver will focus first on helping owner-occupied homes. "One of our commitments is really to dig into the neighborhood that we're working with and become true partners," (Metro Denver Habitat CEO Heather) Lafferty says. "That takes a lot more time and a lot more of an investment."
That investment includes a $300,000 grant from Wells Fargo to help develop the neighborhood revitalization initiative. The group piloted its program last July, sending 100 volunteers to Globeville to repair neighborhood homes. Those hands-on experiences helped craft the long-term initiative.
I've now changed my mind twice on this question. Years ago, I used to think that Habitat ought to do more in terms of neighborhood-building because, for not much additional money, we could speed the process of neighborhood redevelopment.
The counter-argument, which was then Habitat policy, was this: We only do one thing--we build houses--and we do that one thing very well. Doing anything else would constitute "mission creep" and would dilute our mission. This made sense.
Now, we've decided to do what I once thought we should do, which is work to revitalize neighborhoods in addition to building new homes.
The Metro Denver Habitat staff was dispatched to talk with board members about this shift in strategy, which meant I was in the uncomfortable position of changing my mind to agree with my own self, after I had disagreed with myself. In other words, John Kerry-like, I was for it before I was against it, then for it again.
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