Creating a sense of place and providing economic development opportunities to underserved neighborhoods are the priorities of three Akron-based community development corporations, their leaders told Akron’s Press Club Friday.
“It’s about being nimble,” said Justin Chenault, the executive director of the North Hill CDC, who has had to figure out what to do with the Exchange House, a landing place for new refugees.
Since President Donald Trump’s executive order in January barring refugees, none have come in; Chenault said the house has been empty since the last family left in mid-February. Now he has to decide whether to pivot and use the space differently, he said: How can he be responsive to the community’s needs but also be flexible?
Along with Chenault, the executive directors of Middlebury’s The Well CDC and the Better Kenmore CDC talked about fundraising, housing needs and how they collaborate with each other at the event at the Akron Goodyear Building.
Eleni Manousogiannakis, the new Better Kenmore leader, was that group’s development director for two years before taking on her new role. Manousogiannakis said she wants people’s perceptions of the Kenmore neighborhood to change — for people outside the neighborhood to recognize it for its concentration of music businesses. She said she knows it can take decades to see change, but she wants to see it happen.
“Unless you know, you don’t see it,” she said of the music businesses. “It doesn’t matter who takes credit for it; the goal is for the community to thrive.”
Funding always an issue
That can be difficult in areas that have long been disinvested in, said Zac Kohl, The Well’s executive director. He said he was worried that $1.9 million in federal funds to pay for exterior home renovations in the community would be cut, but the money appears not to be delayed. Others said fundraising to do their work is always a concern.
“The uncertainty is always there when you rely on philanthropy,” she said.
The Well’s coffee shop, 647 Coffee, has helped bring in $5,000 or $6,000 above its break-even costs to that CDC the past two years, Kohl said, but he sees the venture as more of a social enterprise. It helps create both jobs and opportunity for the Middlebury area.
Housing a main priority for Akron CDCs
But the main issue the neighborhood has to tackle is a housing shortage, Kohl said. He said The Well has rehabilitated more than 100 homes since 2018 and continues to focus its efforts on housing.
“We need more houses,” he said. “We need to build more; we need to do more neighborhood-scale development.”
The CDCs don’t have guaranteed funds from Akron, Chenault said, and the fact that money isn’t guaranteed is “tricky as heck.” It leads to competition between the CDCs for limited dollars, he said. Manousogiannakis said she hopes to make Better Kenmore more self-sustaining so the organization doesn’t have to worry about where its money will come from.
Kohl said he and Manousogiannakis were recently in Columbus, advocating for the CDCs to get access to Welcome Home Ohio money that currently must go through the Summit County Land Bank.
What advice do leaders have for a new downtown CDC?
With a new CDC starting up downtown, the leaders suggested whoever steps into that executive director role start small.
It’s important for them to know how people experience downtown, Kohl said, while Chenault said trips to cities such as Durham, North Carolina, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, have taught him that big changes start small. Instead of trying to hit home runs, he said, Akron should start hitting singles and moving around the bases.
“The thing that got the big thing was 1,000 small things,” he said.
