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January 13, 2000

Crime and Gangs Retreat as Homeowners Take Over Neighborhood

L.S. Kadaba

LANCASTER, Pa. (ANS) -- As far as groups like the Spanish American Civic Association here are concerned, home ownership equals neighborhood improvement, even when the district is blighted with the ills of drugs and crime.

When Mayra Rivera-Suarez, a 36-year-old mother of two boys, decided to move to the troubled southeast section of Lancaster, a part of town overrun with drug dealers, crime and gangs, friends and family told her she was crazy.

But Rivera shrugged off the skeptics. She would take her chances on a community program that offered her an opportunity to own for the first time a home, one with three bedrooms, a brick front and a backyard. "I just believed everything can change depending on you," said Rivera, who soon took over as a block captain.

Since then, her block on Green Street has gone from one of the worst to one of the best, with crime down and drug dealers long gone.

Such a dramatic turnaround is in large part due to organizations like the Spanish American Civic Association Development Corp. and coalitions such as The Partnership and Lancaster Campaign. Each is working, along with city government, to revitalize sections of the city house by house, block by block. Already, the groups have rehabilitated dozens of houses, attracted businesses and opened a charter school.

In 1999 the city was recognized for its community efforts by the National Civic League, which picked Lancaster as one of 20 finalists for its prestigious All America Cities awards.

SACA, a civic group with a long history, started a development corporation in 1994 to buy blighted properities with city funds, rehabilitate them and then sell them to low- to moderate-income families, such as that of Mayra Rivera-Suarez. The group operates under a simple premise: Owners will have a greater stake in the upkeep of the neighborhood than renters. Since the group bought its first blighted properties, crime has declined 85 percent, police report.

"They're doing so much with housing and really turning around some blocks in Lancaster," said the city's chief planner, Paula Jackson.

The SACA Development Corp. has rehabilitated about 60 homes in a four-block area, working with a coalition of banks to finance construction costs. Home ownership in the neighborhood has increased from 15 percent to 35 percent, said Jose R. Lopez, president and CEO of the group. Out of the 60 sales, there has been only one default, he said.

"We're trying to create a home-ownership zone," he said. "We have a ways to go. Four blocks ain't going to cut it."

This year, the group plans to begin renovations of a vacant tobacco factory, converting the first floor into retail space -- something sorely lacking in the neighborhood -- and the higher floors into affordable apartment units. It also wants to nearly double the number of home sales from 12 to 22 a year by developing a mortgage program that will allow more families, despite poor credit histories, to qualify for financing, Lopez said.

SACA also is a member of The Partnership, which in 1995 united for the first time four minority-headed social service organizations that had traditionally vied with each other for funds even as they served the same low-income Hispanic and African-American constituencies.

"We had to get together," said Phyllis L. Campbell, president and CEO of the Urban League of Lancaster County, also a Partnership member. "We were all nibbling at the same piece of crumb. We were clawing away, as crabs in a barrel, trying to get ahead and falling farther and farther back."

The group, which meets monthly, is focusing on three initiatives: education, employment and housing. The other two Partnership members are the Crispus Attucks Community Center, which offers skills training, youth programs and home ownership classes, and Neighborhood Services, which provides youth programs and budget counseling.

Campbell allowed that bringing together the different organizations under a single umbrella has had its ups and downs. "You have different personalities, different visions and different mandates," she said. "There are growing pains." Still, she said, the coalition has accomplished more in a short span of time than any of the individual members would have been able to alone.

In 1998, The Partnership started a charter school for middle school students to combat dropout rates. The group also has helped welfare recipients find employment, provided safe haven programs for hundreds of children and addressed economic development of the southeast section. And it has garnered $10 million in city and state funds to improve conditions in targeted neighborhoods over a 10-year period.

"I think there's real leverage to having a partnership," Campbell said.

Meanwhile, the Lancaster Campaign, a coalition of the city's largest employers and top government officials, has created a civic infrastructure that promotes volunteerism and polishes Lancaster's image.

The executive committee of the group -- essentially the power structure of Lancaster -- meets monthly with the sole goal of focusing on solutions to city problems. "That meeting never occurred before the Lancaster Campaign," said Thomas T. Baldrige, chairman of the campaign and president of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. "What we do for the city is engage the private sector in ways the city would not be able to do itself."

The campaign also developed a 10-point vision statement for the city and established committees to work on each area, including city finances, education, diversity and neighborhoods.

Since it began in 1996, it has made a difference in both small and big ways. The campaign designed and distributed around town the royal blue banners with the city's red rose emblem that proclaim "Live It, Love It Lancaster" and found space for tour buses to park. It also has raised $100,000 in private sector funds for an economic development action program and spearheaded the drive for a convention center and hotel, with construction to start later this year.

"The campaign has changed people's attitude about the city," Baldrige said. "There is a renewed sense of hope and optimism."

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L. S. Kadaba is a staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Contacts:

Mayra Rivera-Suarez, block captain on Green Street and home owner, Lancaster, Pa., 717-392-2957.

Paula Jackson, chief planner for Lancaster City, Lancaster, Pa., 717-291-4701.

Jose Lopez, president, SACA Development Corp., Lancaster, Pa., 717-298-7985.

Tom Baldrige, chairman, Lancaster Campaign, Lancaster, Pa., 717-397-3531.

Phyllis Campbell, president, Urban League of Lancaster County, Lancaster, Pa., 717-394-1966.