Common Wealth, Citizens Group

Reprinted with permission from The Business Journal

Common Wealth, Citizens Group To Build Houses on North Side

Oct. 6, 2006

By Dan O’Brien

Pat Rosenthal, Mark Peyko and William D'Avignon break ground for the first of 6 houses to be built on Baldwin Avenue.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- A plan to build six new houses on the city’s North Side is just the start, say officials who attended a ground-breaking ceremony Thursday. The long-term objective is to harness additional resources to revitalize an entire neighborhood.

Common Wealth Inc., a not-for-profit agency that forms partnerships with other organizations to construct houses for low- to middle-income families, and the North Side Citizen’s Coalition, broke ground Thursday where they hope to build six new single-family units on Baldwin Avenue.

“This is the first project where we offer immediate for-sale housing,” said Pat Rosenthal, executive director of Common Wealth. Most of the organization’s efforts have been focused on developing houses either for rent or lease-to-own.

Common Wealth has helped in the development of 500 units of affordable housing over the last 20 years, Rosenthal said.

Joining Rosenthal were members of neighborhood groups, charitable organizations, city and state officials.

“This project led to us making revitalization of this neighborhood a priority,” said William D’Avignon, the city’s community development director.

D’Avignon said the city has completed a conditions assessment of the neighborhood just north of Youngstown State University and east of Elm Street. “Our objective is to make every single parcel of land productive again,” he said.

Such a development fits into the goals of Youngstown 2010, the comprehensive land use and development plan completed last year, D’Avignon noted. With new housing under way for this section of the city, it made sense for the officials to act and reinforce this new development with improvements to other parts of the neighborhood.

That could mean the city acquiring other vacant parcels and redeveloping these lots into sites for more homes.

Another part of the plan is code enforcement, D’Avignon said, noting that property owners whose houses are in disrepair will be contacted and asked to make improvements to their lots. “For those who can’t afford to do this, we’ll offer assistance so they can maintain their property,” he said.

Prices of the new houses start at $75,000, Rosenthal said. However, would-be homeowners must go through a buyers counseling program before making a down payment. Two not-for-profits, Catholic Charities and Buy Into Youngstown, will provide financial counseling as well as assistance of up to $5,000 so that families can make a down payment.

The first houses to be constructed will be 1,144 square feet and have three bedrooms, a two-car garage and 1 1/2 baths. Testa Builders of Akron is the general contractor.

Julie Michael Smith, Gov. Bob Taft’s regional representative, said the state contributed $380,000 through the Ohio Housing Development Assistance Program for this project.

“So many organizations are involved in making these projects work,” she noted.