Preserving affordability in a gentrifying neighborhood through community building and engagement

Mary Lawler, Executive Director
Jenifer Wagley, Deputy Director
Avenue Community Development Corp.

Challenge: Blighted low-income areas in Houston offer attractive opportunities for developers, but luxury townhomes change the character of historic neighborhoods and threaten to displace residents. Avenue Community Development Corp's challenge is to help low-income families remain in their neighborhoods and enable them to participate in the community's revitalization.



Avenue provides affordable housing and homebuyer education for low and moderate-income families in the Near Northside of Houston, where the predominantly Hispanic population of 25,000 struggles with cycles of generational poverty: one-third of residents live below the poverty line. Quality affordable housing is scarce, disparities in health and educational outcomes are pronounced and the area lacks vibrant commercial hubs which can offer reliable employment opportunities. However, Near Northside also has great potential for revitalization due to Houston's population growth, the extension of light rail into the neighborhood and the area's proximity to downtown. Redevelopment is accelerating.

New construction and rising housing costs put increasing pressure on low-income families to move to distant suburbs, farther from employment centers and their supportive social networks, leaving the benefits of redevelopment to newcomers. Low-income communities need a comprehensive revitalization strategy to address these issues.

In 2009, Avenue launched an intensive community building and engagement initiative, implemented as part of GO Neighborhoods, Houston Local Initiatives Support Corp.'s Building Sustainable Communities program. Avenue engaged residents in identifying changes they wanted to see in their neighborhood, provided them with tools to advocate for resources and supported them in revitalizing the community according to their vision. Avenue provides guidance and staff support to resident-led teams. With the help of NeighborWorks America and other partners, over 14,000 volunteers have implemented more than 200 community-led projects which have leveraged over $64 million of investment. Seven teams attended the annual NeighborWorks Community Leadership Institute and those teams created numerous programs benefitting the community.

Two initiatives illustrate the community's success in preserving affordability:

1. Minimum lot size protections: Over the past three years, residents organized numerous campaigns to advocate for minimum lot size designations in single-family residential areas, preventing the subdivision of lots for townhouse development. The designations protect over 1,200 properties in Near Northside, a great success in preserving the neighborhood's historic character and keeping housing affordable.


2. Volunteer home repair program: In 2014, Avenue partnered with residents and the nonprofit Rebuilding Together Houston to start a volunteer home repair program for very low-income senior, veteran and disabled homeowners. "Rebuilding Northside Together" has preserved existing housing stock by rehabilitating 35 homes so far with the help of hundreds of community volunteers.

The initial listening and planning phase of the community building and engagement initiative created the foundation for success. This phase brought residents together in thoughtful discussion, revealed common concerns and helped them find their voice to address those concerns. Once residents participated in — and succeeded at — just one initiative of importance to them, they were better prepared for future civic participation. Over time, residents broadened their vision and turned their collective talents from smaller-scale projects to wider efforts.

Avenue learned that two elements are essential to their success: a shared leadership model and ongoing development of resident leadership skills. With shared leadership, all community members participating in the group have equal standing; meeting leadership rotates between members, and project responsibilities are shared. Community actions are taken only after consensus is built, rather than as a result of voting, where the majority decides for the group and the minority has to go along.

Extensive staff time is required to nurture the skills and processes of shared leadership, but ongoing mentorship helps community leaders manage this sometimes challenging process to produce collaborative, resilient plans that are backed by the community and have greater potential to succeed.

To create a pipeline of residents engaged in Near Northside, Avenue is building on the train-the-trainers 'each one teach one' concept in its leadership training, so that each resident who gets involved learns to lead and to pass these skills on to others.

To share leadership in the larger community, Avenue has trained other nonprofits to be conveners for GO Teams within their programmatic focus, such as family income and wealth, education and health. These organizations offer critical expertise and resources to residents and are engaged at a new level with the communities they serve.

Through robust community engagement and community-led programming, Avenue seeks to provide a replicable model for creating healthy, vibrant and economically diverse neighborhoods in other areas of Houston.