Rebirth Among the Ruins

By Matt Taecker & Tom Kegelman

Hope and Holyoke-contradictory no longer, thanks to a remarkable combination of people, programs, vision, and funding.

From Conservation Matters, Spring 1998
Conservation Law Foundation

The government of cities," wrote James Bryce, "is the one conspicuous failure of the United States." Holyoke, Mass., is a potent example of that failure. One neighborhood in particular, Churchill, is marked by vacant lots, abandoned buildings, and a severe concentration of poverty, joblessness, and crime-almost a microcosm of all the ills that beset American inner cities. Nothing about it remotely suggests any kind of a vibrant urban center.

Private investment largely avoids the area. Landlords, plagued by rising operating costs and falling incomes, have no motivation to maintain their properties. Middle-class homeowners see little reason to live in Churchill when affordable alternatives exist at Holyoke's edge. A 12-acre public housing project, the Jackson Parkway Apartments, also stands in the way of improvement. As one developer said, "What's the point of investing in the Churchill neighborhood while the public housing project is still standing?" Not only the developers, but even the residents of Jackson Parkway themselves are concerned about the crime that infects their streets.

And yet, that is only part of the story. There was a time when Churchill thrived, a residential center for mill workers and other laborers. And that past vigor is now being recalled to life. Even as buildings crumble, the seeds of rebirth are sprouting into growth. Mostly through the efforts of small nonprofits, city officials, and residents, there are optimistic signs of regeneration. A lush community garden grows among the foundations of a demolished building; an abandoned armory serves as a youth center; committed citizens devote endless hours to pursuing strategies for remaking the neighborhood.

These recent improvements are largely supported with substantial public funding, whose long-term future is uncertain. Until the private sector is prepared to make an investment in the neighborhood, lasting solutions may be elusive. And real success will depend on retaining affordable housing while obliterating its stigma, preserving the historic charm of the neighborhood while removing its decay, making people feel safe and comfortable, and respecting those residents who call Churchill their home.

The house of hope
In 1996, the Holyoke Housing Authority (HHA), which administers and manages the Jackson Parkway Apartments, competed for federal funds made available by an innovative new program called Hope VI. This program exemplifies the transformation of the agency of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Clinton administration, from a single-purpose agency concerned primarily with dispensing low-income housing, to one that encourages comprehensive strategies. It recognizes the fact that diverse threads strengthen the fabric of a community, and that lasting solutions must transcend the compartmentalized efforts of most agencies and advocates.

The program requires communities to engage in a process that moves all participants toward one central goal-making a healthy neighborhood. Neighborhoods should be able to sustain themselves economically, socially, and culturally, with citizens empowered to chart their own destinies. As Raymond Murphy, the Executive Director of the Holyoke Housing Authority, said, "Our goal is to stop warehousing the poor and turn distressed neighborhoods into new, viable communities."

To get neighborhoods to stand on their own feet, the Hope VI program focuses on three primary concerns. First, it emphasizes socioeconomic diversity by requiring a strategy for attracting higher incomes into blighted areas and for distributing subsidized housing throughout the community. This requirement reverses earlier policies that created low-income enclaves where residents were stuck inside a circle of diminished opportunities. Future efforts should help people of all incomes and cultures know each other and appreciate the personal challenges each person faces. Middle-class households must invest themselves in a mixed neighborhood in order to sustain its health.

Hope VI also encourages a broad continuum of social services, not only by funding job and life skill programs, but also by calling upon each community to look comprehensively at existing social programs and come up with ways to integrate them better for increased efficacy.

Perhaps most important, Hope VI emphasizes the significance of the physical fabric in creating healthy neighborhoods. In the best urban neighborhoods, residents can walk to retail conveniences and businesses in a way that is rarely replicated in the suburbs. Such areas have services and facilities that meet the ongoing needs of residents-transit, childcare, healthcare, libraries, post offices, recreation facilities, and schools. A livable urban neighborhood must also be safe and attractive. Its streets should be lined with windows, doorways, and private yards-not blank walls and unsupervised spaces that invite criminal activity.

Seeing far, seeing whole
This kind of emphasis on holistic solutions is new for HUD, and most housing authorities are not accustomed to think about matters beyond their immediate operations. In Holyoke, the Housing Authority recognized that to get Hope VI funding, they would need to produce an application that was comprehensive and forward-looking. Consequently, they hired a multidisciplinary team including The Community Builders, Calthorpe Associates, and Dietz & Company, a local architecture firm. The Community Builders has developed an expertise in assembling the resources to finance, develop, manage, and sustain high-quality housing that is affordable to people of all incomes. Calthorpe Associates is a planning and urban design firm at the forefront of new urbanism-a national movement towards building communities that are comfortable and safe to walk in and contain a complementary mix of homes, shops, and civic amenities. Peter Calthorpe, principal of the firm, assisted HUD in formulating its new neighborhood-based vision.

The team developed its winning strategy by focusing on the community itself. A wide spectrum of interests was enlisted to help formulate a plan, including public housing residents, residents of the Churchill neighborhood, landlords, homeowners, clergy, nonprofit developers and service providers, as well as all municipal departments. Through debate, creativity, and compromise, a consensus was achieved that the Jackson Parkway apartments must also be reconfigured to better integrate itself within the fabric of the Churchill neighborhood. Other blighted and vacant properties were to be rehabilitated, or torn down and replaced. Among other identified needs was the revitalization of Holyoke's downtown to make living near it more desirable. The application was successful. In 1997, the Holyoke Housing Authority, one of the smallest housing authorities in the nation to receive a Hope VI grant, received $15 million from HUD.

Central to the success of the team's plan is the transformation of Jackson Parkway. Many structures will be renovated and modernized to a level that can command market rents, while others will be demolished to make way for 41 new townhouses.

The existing streetless and yardless "superblock" that characterizes many failed housing projects will have no place in the reclaimed urban neighborhood of tomorrow. Local streets will extend through the Jackson Parkway site and each home will have a private yard. This clear delineation between public street and private yard is crucial. With the ambiguous open spaces that now exist, residents cannot distinguish between a passer-by and an intruder. With private yards, neighbors feel justified in calling the police or shouting out the window whenever they see anyone acting inappropriately. This kind of design is likely to create a greater sense of ownership in residents. Instead of staying away from the anonymous concrete expanses that surround large housing projects, they will be motivated to improve and individualize their yards.

The street connections, and the design of new and renovated units, will also eliminate Jackson Parkway's separate identity, and its attendant physical isolation and social stigma. Instead of the single super-block of the existing project, each home will have a street address-an important feature on job applications. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, selective rehabilitation, demolition, and new construction will support a healthy mix of subsidized and market units, with an emphasis on creating a more appropriate balance between ownership and rental units.

Reconstructing Churchill
Urban designers have long stressed the need for neighborly interaction even in the densest of neighborhoods. Porches, windows, and front yards, which are the most effective means of fostering such interaction, are going to be a major element of the planned redesign of Churchill. These architectural features, serving as "eyes on the street," will be combined with building materials and building outlines that maintain Churchill's historic character and help make it a distinctive place within a region with many available housing opportunities.

New streets, civic institutions, parkland, and porches will join together to obliterate the edge that separates the Jackson Parkway site from the historic fabric that surrounds it. While these improvements are targeted to attract middle-income households back into the city, it is important to remember that there are no plans to displace current public housing residents. Those who choose to remain will find housing opportunities and programs designed to promote self-sufficiency. Other residential choices within the city will also be available to them through Section 8 rental assistance and "rent-to-own" programs. Once these elements are in place, the Churchill of tomorrow will be a model of economic vibrancy and human diversity.

However, no plan for reclaiming urban neighborhoods can afford to end with the installation of attractive and affordable housing. The quality of life that will make a neighborhood thrive over the long term, can only be achieved with other inputs. In the case of Churchill, the planners have already envisioned programs to teach language and job skills, assist with financial planning, offer healthcare, and heal drug-dependent lives. Existing services will be integrated with these innovative efforts to provide a comprehensive continuum of care for the unique needs of each individual. When combined with the physical and economic integration within the neighborhood, these social services will enable residents to put stigma and despair behind them.

Holyoke has been presented with an extraordinary opportunity to rewrite the future of one of its most notorious neighborhoods. With the right vision and a coordinated approach, private players and public service providers can expect to turn that opportunity into a model of urban renewal as well as a rewarding investment. Any initial success will naturally attract significant additional amounts of private investment and government funding. Eventually, when residents have achieved self-sufficiency, they can take full responsibility for nurturing the physical and financial health of their community.

The Hope VI program should help the heart of Holyoke become what it once was-a vibrant center with traditional neighborhoods. The combination of a classic downtown and thriving residential communities would have great charm for potential future residents who are looking for small-town amenities and lifestyle options without the negatives of land-intensive and auto-dependent suburban sprawl. With the rebirth of hope in Churchill, Holyoke could send a bright signal to many of our nation's struggling urban communities.

Matt Taecker is a Senior Associate and urban designer at Calthorpe Associates, a firm that helps implement mixed-use neighborhoods, especially in transit-oriented settings. Tom Kegelman is a Project Manager with The Community Builders, a nonprofit corporation specializing in the financing, development, and management of high-quality housing affordable to people of all incomes.