"Reweaving" the Fabric of Community in Cleveland
By Karen Free

The Fairfax neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, is a 25-block area of two-story and multi-family dwellings built between 1910-45. Like other cities in the 1960s and '70s, urban renewal programs and, to a lesser degree, slumlords, caused the outmigration of thousands of families to the suburbs. Those who stayed witnessed both the neighborhood's vitality as well as its blue-collar manufacturing employees slip away.

Habitat's strategy of renovating every third house in the Fairfax area of Cleveland has served as a catalyst for private development "in-filling."

Today, upwards of 30-50 percent of Greater Cleveland's housing stock is vacant or substandard, according to city officials. And there's been no new housing construction since the end of World War II.

Since 1987, Greater Cleveland HFH has been in place to help meet the need for housing by renovating and rehabilitating existing properties. Its approach is to renovate every third house on a block, thus acting as a catalyst for private development "in-filling."

Stephen Frye, executive director of Greater Cleveland HFH, says the affiliate's "comprehensive reweaving" of the Fairfax neighborhood was born of two things: a desire to have a greater impact in the neighborhood rather than merely improving some of its housing; and a desire to economically integrate the neighborhoods.

"There is something worse than racial segregation, I think," says Frye. "That's economic segregation. Greater Cleveland HFH believes that if you take a targeted area and it becomes economically integrated, a lot of other things will happen."

In 1996, and in conjunction with the city's Bicentennial celebration, Greater Cleveland HFH renovated 18 houses in its target neighborhood, while 30 market-rate houses were built by other developers, and more than 100 rehabilitation and repair projects were completed by still others. Since then, the "comprehensive reweaving" has expanded and pushed out to other neighborhoods in three directions. To date, Greater Cleveland HFH has replaced a total of 30 substandard houses with safe and decent housing.

But that's not all. Once families started to move back into the neighborhood, other things like a community garden, day-care center and playground became necessary. Bicentennial Village has those things now. And, through a partnership between local government, Mt. Olive Baptist Church and nearby University Hospital, a walk-in clinic is also in the neighborhood.

Frye says: "A Habitat homeowner once told me, 'Habitat has been a blessing in this neighborhood. There are supposed to be kids in a neighborhood, and for a long time there haven't been any. I love what's happening here.' "





Reprinted from Habitat World Magazine, June/July 2000.
This article may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
©2000 Habitat for Humanity International