In this instructional discussion, Habitat affiliates and community partners explore how to select and work within neighborhoods for revitalization projects. The speakers emphasize that successful revitalization hinges on truly listening to residents, understanding the broader context of the neighborhood, and fostering genuine empowerment rather than top‑down betterment. They outline practical criteria for choosing a target area, such as the neighborhood’s size, clear boundaries, existing community leadership, and the presence of active coalitions. The conversation also covers Habitat’s complementary role—leveraging its strengths in new home construction and critical repairs while partnering with other local organizations to attract additional resources. Throughout, the participants stress the importance of building sustainable coalitions, encouraging resident leadership, and ensuring that the coalition’s strength remains after Habitat moves on, thereby creating lasting community impact.
Chapters
They're building these houses that were looking bad, and it's just a different place.
When I explain what neighborhood revitalization is, I usually get 3 different reactions. One is, we thought you already did that. 2 is, why weren't you already doing that? Or 3, that's a brilliant idea, you should have been doing that a long time ago. So it resonates with people.
Neighborhood revitalization does make sense, and you're thinking, we'd love to broaden our Habitat mission and work with a coalition of folks to not only secure good housing but also secure a healthy environment and lifestyle. But where do you start?
Residents know what's best For their residents. They are inside the community, and it really depends on what their interests are that would make them be active and involved. And it takes involved residents to have a great neighborhood.
Listening to residents is key. I think even before listening to residents is making sure that we understand the neighborhood. We understood the context out of which their voices came, and I think that made us much more of a partner and made us a better active listener.
You ask residents, what do they want to improve in their neighborhood? Meet the resident leaders. Are they receptive to partnership?
It's an opportunity for the neighborhood to take ownership for itself and to set a vision for what they want to see accomplished. And then Habitat can work in partnership with that, both bringing the things that we can do with new construction and critical home repair and Brush with Kindness, but also then harnessing some of the other organizations in the community and attracting them to investing their resources into the area.
Residents work with us. Residents lead us. Residents have to pick us back.
If we have to, from time to time, encourage leadership and encourage direction, We're poised to do so, but once we move to another neighborhood, we need to be sure to leave the strength of the coalition behind and make sure that that's what we've built up in addition to the physical houses here.
There is a list of things you can ask yourself to narrow down your neighborhood selection. Do you see a fit for Habitat's housing efforts? You know, the stuff you excel in. What strengths and weaknesses do you bring to the table? Everyone is different. Some are leaders and organizers, networkers, workers, you know. Will your skills match opportunity in the neighborhood?
As we looked at a neighborhood that we could really invest in, we wanted to find one that was of a reasonable size that, that our work could have an impact. So we wanted to work with one that was both large enough that it had opportunities for new home construction, critical repair, but also small enough that as we did that work, it would have Some questions to answer: Does the neighborhood have an identity or a boundary?
Are there people already active in the neighborhood? Coalitions to partner with? Are the neighborhood leaders interested in working together?
The residents really have to believe that their voice counts. For most of us Habitat affiliates, you know, we're used to building new houses and we're really good at it. We're very efficient at it. Almost every part of our organization had to change in some way.
You know the difference between empowerment and betterment? Betterment, this is smart, well-meaning people decide what's right for you. Empowerment is when the residents are part of the process. And here's a good question: has your local government singled out the neighborhood for any reason?
Are they interested in helping folks Most of all, I see a whole lot of difference in the revitalization of the neighborhood. And when I see a group of people coming together to make their neighborhood a more safe and secure environment for their family and for their children, this is outstanding.
Also, in the neighborhood you're considering, are there abandoned, foreclosed, vacant buildings? There might be an opportunity for rehab or demolish. Maybe make room for a neighborhood park. Do your homework and you stay in regular discussion with residents, and the rewards are tremendous.
