Marketplace / October 14, 2019
“We had some hope that if the school was itself an attraction to people to come to the neighborhood, that the neighborhood would kind of organically improve,” said Darlene Kamine, who helped lead the turnaround as founder of the Community Learning Center Institute. “But the housing stock and the community was so distressed that it just couldn’t happen quite in that organic way.”
The next step was to rebuild that community.
The Habitat homes are part of a much bigger plan to revitalize Lower Price Hill, led by Adelyn Hall, the Community Learning Center Institute’s first director of housing and neighborhood development. She was brought on in 2015 to help stem the housing crisis.
“If you don’t have a home, there’s so many things that you cannot be successful at, education being one of them,” she said. Step one was partnering with city agencies and nonprofits to make sure kids had a safe place to sleep every night. Step two was working with developers, landlords and local businesses to create long-term stability.
School staff, community leaders and residents packed the Oyler cafeteria last month for an update on the plan. Thirty-four million dollars have been committed so far to rehab 130 units of rental housing, add trees, lighting, a new riverfront park and more.