Neighborhood Revitalization
PICO has won hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment in community centers, housing and new infrastructure in low and moderate income neighborhoods.
These stories demonstrate how PICO is working to revitalize neighborhoods:
Foreclosure Prevention & Neighborhood Stabilization
In October 2008, PICO launched a nationwide campaign to pressure the Treasury and Congress for a systematic home loan modification program to prevent 3 million foreclosures. Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization of Antioch, CA kicked off the campaign by holding the largest public event to date on the foreclosure crisis, winning a commitment from Bank of America/Countrywide to work with PICO in 25 cities to implement a home loan modification program. PICO affiliates in California, Florida, Missouri, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and New Jersey are also working to stabilize neighborhoods hard-hit by the crisis. Learn more about PICO's nationwide foreclosure prevention campaign >>
Rebuilding Communities
Camden Churches Organized for People (CCOP) in Camden, New Jersey, won state passage of the Camden Recovery Act in 2002, providing $175 million in new state investment for housing and community redevelopment in one of the poorest cities in the nation. Three years later, CCOP won $8 million for a home rehabilitation project aimed at helping homeowners share directly in Camden's redevelopment. CCOP's multi-year organizing campaign has begun to spur significant new private investment in Camden for the first time in decades.
Community Benefits Agreements
San Francisco Organizing Project (SFOP), in coalition with the San Francisco Labor Council and ACORN, secured a binding agreement from a private developer to include an extensive list of benefits as part of the redevelopment of Bayview-Hunter's Point Shipyard. With a commitment to build over 3,500 units of affordable housing - 35 percent of the 10,000 housing units in the project - the agreement sets a record in San Francisco for the largest percentage of affordable housing units for any development in the city's history. SFOP also won a total of $17 million in workforce development funds, a commitment to build family housing, and guaranteed hiring of local residents for thousands of living wage, union jobs in service, hotel, food, grocery and retail.
Creating Accountability & Investment in Urban Neigbhorhoods
Communities Creating Opportunity (CCO) in Kansas City, Missouri, led a grassroots campaign to restructure the city's Housing and Community Development Department in order to make it more responsive to the community, as well as leveraged over $20 million for redevelopment projects. CCO won $2.5 million in public and private funding for a comprehensive home repair initiative, played a principal role in negotiating and securing a $3.3 million investment from private investors to build 24 three-bedroom houses in the one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kansas City, and collaborated with City Councilmembers to invest $15 million in street lights, sidewalks, storm sewers, water mains and parks improvements throughout Kansas City neighborhoods.
Community Priorities
Birmingham Area Interfaith Sponsoring Committee (BAISC) in Birmingham, Alabama, worked with the city's Brownsville community to secure $2 million in funding for public sanitation services in this crime-ridden abandoned neighborhood. BAISC worked with the city of Birmingham to install the new sewage system, develop an affordable housing project on vacant properties, and garner a commitment from Regions Bank to help in housing redevelopment.