Charlotte Mecklenburg Housing Partnership & Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department
Project Name: Druid Hills Revitalization
Charlotte, NC

The Druid Hills Revitalization project targeted an established Charlotte neighborhood, which has traditionally been divided into two sections with limited interaction in working toward common goals. The success of the application is rooted in the decision to implement a Neighborhood Action Team for Druid Hills which address a variety of problems including crime, housing stock, and neighborhood infrastructure. The team involves city departments including Police, Neighborhood Development, and Engineering, other service providers, and neighborhood residents in assessing the neighborhood, setting goals, and developing and implementing the action steps in support of those goals. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, a non-profit housing development and finance corporation, became interested in Druid Hills as a part of a broader project to revitalize Charlotte’s Statesville Avenue corridor through housing development and revitalization of the surrounding neighborhoods. The Partnership developed a formal revitalization plan which included goals for crime reduction and investing in and improving the housing stock without displacement of low and moderate income residents. Police officers were heavily involved in developing the communications networks that facilitated the partnerships among the involved agencies as well as with the community. One of the unique features of the partnership has been the ability of all parties to successfully coordinate their activities on what started as separate projects and leverage each other’s resources to work together toward the revitalization goals. The Neighborhood Action Team has focused available city resources (both financial and personnel) in one area.

Olneyville Housing Corporation & Providence Police Department
Project Name: Riverside Gateway Initiatives
Providence, RI

In 2001 and 2002, the Olneyville Housing Corporation (OHC), in conjunction with the then thirteen (now twenty-one) member Olneyville Collaborative, conducted a comprehensive planning process through a neighborhood planning grant from the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation. One significant need identified through the planning process was for a strategy for the area between Manton Avenue, the neighborhood’s main street with a mix of commercial and housing uses, and Aleppo Street, where the City of Providence was conducting environmental remediation prior to the development of a park along the Woonasquatucket River. A diverse set of stakeholders in the Olneyville neighborhood was formed which worked to advance a comprehensive revitalization agenda that is transforming what had been a crime ridden abandoned section of the City of Providence, Rhode Island into a healthy vibrant neighborhood. Vacant lots that once harbored drug users and prostitutes have been replaced by a nine acre park with a bike path and new affordable homes for neighborhood families. Creative partnerships with the Providence Police Department at all stages of this five year process have been critical to the efforts’ success. In addition to the neighborhood’s physical revitalization, crime is down dramatically in the immediate project area.

Neighborhood Housing Services of Phoenix & Phoenix Police Department
Project Name: There’s No Place like A HOME
Phoenix, AZ

Through collaborative partnerships between the Phoenix Police Department, Maricopa County, many City of Phoenix departments, the Garfield Organization and NHS Phoenix, the Garfield neighborhood has become a success story rising above overwhelming blight and crime to bring a new life of cultural diversity and hope to an urban neighborhood. The Garfield Neighborhood is a diverse, historic front-porch community in the heart of downtown Phoenix. Developed from 1883 to 1931 Garfield is the oldest historic neighborhood still relatively intact in Phoenix. In 1995 Garfield had many deteriorated houses and vacant lots. The bulk of construction since the 70s had been poor quality rental units. Drop houses for illegal immigrants just arriving in the country proliferated, drugs were readily available and prostitution was rampant. Lifelong residents had become fearful in their own neighborhood. A gang was “taxing” people just to live in the area. Housing was deteriorating due to disinvestment, triggered by crime, as well as by aging structures and residents. The partnership developed a revitalization strategy which included: closing drug houses, instituting gang deterrence measures, improving the housing stock, installing sidewalks and curbs, paving streets and engaging residents to become involved in saving their neighborhood. The strategy, which resulted in a significant drop in crime, involved partnering with the police department, with the city’s Neighborhood Services Department, with the city’s Public Works and Water Departments, with the school districts, with local businesses and with the neighborhood association.

Over the Rhine Revitalization Corporation, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful & Cincinnati Police Department
Project Name: Revitalizing Over-the-Rhine
Cincinnati, OH

Working with the community, the Cincinnati Police Department initiated a high visibility police patrol effort in Over the Rhine, Cincinnati’s poorest neighborhood located in the heart of the city. Partnerships were formed with various City and community agencies, neighborhood groups and private businesses to bring resources to the identified areas, targeted as “hot spots”, in order to reduce crime and enhance the neighborhood quality of life. The sites that were identified included a small City pocket park and near-by green spaces, several sets of City steps and surrounding land, and an abandoned, overgrown lot near a historic market. The projects main objectives were to beautify, reduce crime and increase utilization of the spaces by residents. The collaborative approach allowed the Police Department to utilize crime analysis to identify high crime areas and worked with citizens to strategically direct police resources while the partnering CDC purchased abandoned and underutilized properties in these areas for redevelopment. Utilizing community stakeholders, and volunteer groups, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and the Over The Rhine Revitalization Corp. collaborated on bringing community art and green space improvement to these areas of investment. The impact of an increased police presence, coupled with targeted economic development efforts produced a significant reduction in drug activity and related violent crime and substantially increased economic viability in this community, which had been plagued with heavy drug usage and trafficking, homicides, poverty, and a loss of businesses and economic resources. The cooperative effort between the police department and other groups has led to even greater collaborative efforts within the community and has become a model for community-police partnerships throughout the City of Cincinnati.

Jefferson East Business Association & Detroit Police Department
Project Name: Clean and Safe Program
Detroit, MI

Founded in 1992 by a group of concerned eastside Detroit residents and business owners, the Jefferson East Business Association (JEBA) pursues a mission of improving the quality of life on the city’s lower eastside by creating a viable and vibrant business district. Over the last decade, JEBA has implemented a series of successful community safety, economic development and neighborhood beautification initiatives to make the area more secure and attractive for visitors, residents and businesses. In partnership with local police, schools, businesses and churches JEBA’s Clean and Safe program has forged the resurgence of a main commercial corridor located along Jefferson Avenue as an identifiable and attractive business corridor with livable adjoining residential neighborhoods through the deterrence of crime and enhancement of safety. The immediate fourteen-block commercial district in which much of JEBA’s safety and beautification takes place consists of approximately 60 retail, service and institutional businesses and/or buildings. The district has endured years of disinvestment and suffers from a vacancy rate of around 50%, which has decreased considerably over the past three years due to their work. Through code enforcement crime prevention, beautification activities and development strategies, JEBA has created partnerships and participated in collaborations to address blight, abandoned buildings, graffiti, and public safety in the targeted business district, The work has improved the security and aesthetics of the area by creating a cohesive shopping district and a pedestrian-friendly environment. By improving the business district and creating new green public spaces JEBA has anchored the area through development investments and environmental transformations, which has resulted in the revitalization of both the residential and business area of the neighborhood.

Lawrenceville United & City of Pittsburgh Police Department
Project Name: Lawrenceville Public Safety Program
Pittsburgh, PA

The objectives of the Lawrenceville United Public Safety program are to coordinate and lead efforts to eliminate crime and blight, empower residents to affect neighborhood change, and to spur public and private reinvestment in the Lawrenceville community. Lawrenceville United utilizes a two-pronged approach: awareness and intervention to target drug violations, prostitution and vandalism in the targeted neighborhoods they serve. Lawrenceville United (LU) has developed a number of programs that help them stay in touch with community concerns and, conversely, help LU get relevant information back out to residents. Through a block watch network, community crime surveys, and a public safety newsletter the initiative keeps residents aware and informed about public safety concerns in their community. LU and its members regularly work with city police and building inspectors to target enforcement efforts by attending and testifying at judicial hearings for property owners charged with housing code violations and other crimes. LU’s successful strategies also include lobbying the City to expedite graffiti removal in highly visible areas and to increase the police presence in high crime areas. The group educates landlords of community expectations and responsibilities, contacts new buyers or owners of problem properties to help educate them about screening tenants and eviction procedures, and works with agencies including the local housing authority, Lawrenceville CDC and the US Attorney General’s office to increase economic development and promote public safety.