Neighborhoods Inc. of Battle Creek
Marta Howell, Executive Director
47 N. Washington St.
Battle Creek, Mich. 49016
(616) 968-1113
(616) 963-7022 fax

This outstanding organization has made major strides in turning around several of its city's declining neighborhoods with an effective strategy that somewhat defies the conventional wisdom: Rather than merely rehabilitating individual houses, it aims to save entire neighborhoods; and it does that by working not only on bricks and mortar but also by working with the people who live in neighborhoods. In further precedent-breaking approaches, Neighborhoods Inc. doesn't view its neighbors as "clients" but as "customers”; it doesn't view its central mission as fighting poverty but as making neighborhoods better for all their residents, regardless of their income; and it views rising property values not as a problem but as a sign that things are getting better.

Neighborhoods Inc. was formed about 16 years ago with a somewhat narrower purpose, Marta Howell explained. The City of Battle Creek set up a non-profit organization to encourage citizen participation in the Community Development Block Grant process by starting neighborhood planning groups and using them for input to City Hall. It quickly got involved in a variety of self-help activities such as home repairs for elderly and handicapped home owners, weatherization and similar programs. Over the next 10 years, however, officials had the wisdom to recognize a problem that too often goes unnoticed: Despite this group's good efforts, the programs didn't seem to be helping much. In fact, several of Battle Creek's urban neighborhoods were clearly getting worse.

The reasons for this seemed obvious: As a matter of policy, City Hall had focused its redevelopment efforts on a citywide basis, not a neighborhood basis. And the strategy had paid off, with a major industrial park on part of old Fort Custer booming with new Japanese industry, and major investment in downtown by both Kellogg Co. and the Kellogg Foundation. But while downtown and the industrial park thrived, many neighborhood's in this sturdy little city of 55,000 were "going to pot," in Howell's no-nonsense terms. "Something wasn't working," she said. "Something wasn't right."

Neighborhoods Inc. began studying models including the Enterprise Foundation, LISC and Neighborhood Reinvestment, and brought in a consultant who warned that some neighborhoods might have gone too far to save. Battle Creek's housing prices were among the lowest in the nation, but this, unfortunately, didn't so much reflect affordability as the ravages of white flight, disinvestment and crime. It would take a massive effort to turn this around, the consultant said; it wouldn't be cheap. But city officials, luckily, felt a sense of momentum and wanted the victories of the industrial park and downtown to carry over to the neighborhoods.

Armed with substantial funding from the city and state, the Kellogg Foundation, other local and regional funders, banks and individuals, Neighborhoods Inc. (now with a staff of 23, an operating budget of more than $1 million and a capital and development fund of $5.5 million) reorganized in 1992 with the new mission of "helping neighbors work together to achieve 'healthy neighborhoods'."

With the specific purpose of raising property values as a way to create new "real wealth and economic gain" for the people who live there, Neighborhoods Inc. focuses on three large neighborhoods that together make up about 50 percent of Battle Creek. Defining "healthy neighborhoods" as places where people will WANT to buy homes because it makes economic sense to do so, and where the residents themselves are motivated to manage the issues confronting their neighborhood, the organization fosters redevelopment by flexibly investing in borderline neighborhoods, buying out and destroying or rehabilitating the most dilapidated houses, eliminating eyesores, fostering home repairs, and working with residents to encourage community pride and to develop natural leaders in the neighborhood. Over its first 51 months, Neighborhoods, Inc. has already exceeded its five-year projections, adding 282 new homeowners to the city's tax rolls and making 283 repair loans to existinghomeowners (as of May 1996). Ninety homes have been fully rehabbed, and 52 hopeless cases demolished, their sites either filled with new quality affordable housing or divided between adjacent homeowners. More than 160 quality rental units have also been developed, and nearly 1,200 residents have participated in more than 50 training events have been scheduled to develop community leaders, including the group's innovative "Community Builders" course, a 10-week session specifically designed to build leadership skills. In another model program, Neighborhoods Inc. has developed synergistic partnerships with other non-profits; in an arrangement with Safe Place, a shelter for battered women, for instance, Neighborhoods Inc. rehabs multi-family properties and makes them available to Safe Place to house and counsel women there. A similar arrangement is now being hatched with a community mental-health agency to set up residential programs.

Simple observation demonstrates this program's remarkable success. A quick drive through its target neighborhoods reveals not mere islands of rehabilitation but entire blocks and neighborhoods where every single house on the block is trim, bright and maintained with obvious pride. But underscoring the obvious, the group has retained an outside firm to conduct a rigorous evaluation of its programs; its report is due this autumn, but early indications already show a 20 to 40 percent increase in real economic wealth and economic growth by the residents. Furthermore, the group's loan fund (which Howell hopes to bolster through community investment) has suffered only two losses, ever, in its $5.5 million invested: A $1,500 fire loss, and a $2,500 loan written off when an elderly home owner died.

All the feature stories on @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG's pages are reported and written by Robin Garr, a prize-winning journalist who has visited more than 500 innovative grassroots programs in all 50 states since 1990.

Browse his book, Reinvesting In America, at Amazon.com.

Send him E-mail.

Back to the @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG Home Page