Collaborative aims to fight blight, build and fix up more than 100 homes in three years
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A new group is working to rejuvenate the Weinland Park neighborhood north of Downtown by pledging at least $15 million to develop housing in the area plagued by crime, foreclosures and vacant houses.
The Weinland Park Collaborative, which includes the city of Columbus, Ohio State University, the Columbus Foundation and 12 other institutions, also is investing money in job training and education.
"If we work collaboratively, we can put together a model of neighborhood revitalization and take on the underlying issues without displacing people," said Doug Aschenbach, president of Campus Partners, which is Ohio State's community-development arm and another of the group's members.
The goal is to re-energize the housing market by renovating and building more than 100 homes in two to three years. The collaborative is expected to invest at least $15 million in the neighborhood of 4,800 residents, said Lisa Courtice, vice president of community research for the Columbus Foundation.
Here are some details:
• Homeowners will be able to apply this fall for grants of as much as $20,000 for home improvements. A total of $600,000 will be available and administered by the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.
• Habitat for Humanity will build six homes on land now held in the city's land bank. That will be funded by some of the $1.5 million in federal neighborhood-stabilization money awarded to Habitat. Construction is to begin in the spring.
• The NRP Group, along with Wagenbrenner Development Co., will build 40 lease-to-own houses west of N. Grant Avenue near the old Columbus Coated Fabrics site. The homes will be financed through low-income housing tax credits.
• Wagenbrenner will use part of $2.5 million in federal neighborhood-stabilization money to help renovate 14 vacant houses in the same area, selling them next spring, said Mark Wagenbrenner, the company's president. "Our ambition is to do more than 14 homes," Wagenbrenner said. "We've got to turn around the core of Weinland Park."
Wagenbrenner is redeveloping the 21.5-acre Columbus Coated Fabrics site at N. Grant and E. 5th avenues, a project estimated to cost $80million that could include 305 homes and 300 apartments.
The nearby area is the neighborhood's most blighted, marred by vacant and abandoned houses, said Joyce Hughes, president of the Weinland Park Community Civic Association. Before anyone can talk about new housing, that area has to be fixed up, she said.
Residents can learn more about the collaborative today at the Weinland Park Neighborhood Festival.
The main funders of the collaborative are the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, the Columbus Foundation, Campus Partners, Ohio State University, the United Way of Central Ohio and the city of Columbus.
Courtice said the Columbus Foundation could approve as much as $5 million in grants over five years toward education and job training, as well. Hughes said that can help communities deter drug activity and violence.
"It goes far beyond real estate," Wagenbrenner said of the effort. "It's a monumental task."
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