Vallejo Neighborhood Housing Services received special funding from Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation to apply to neighborhood revitalization strategies in four targeted areas, and to evaluate its success using neighborhood surveys and interviews.

Vallejo Neighborhood Housing Services was founded in 1980 in an effort to bring community organizing and financial resources to the south side of Vallejo, California. Vallejo’s south side includes several unincorporated areas that lack basic infrastructure improvements. Starting in one south-side neighborhood, Vallejo NHS now provides services in Solano, Napa and parts of Contra Costa counties. Vallejo NHS’s mission is to facilitate the production, acquisition, rehabilitation and preservation of housing for low- to moderate-income households in order to combat community deterioration and preserve neighborhood stability
 
Vallejo NHS became a NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center in January 2000. As such, it offers NeighborWorks Full-Cycle Lending services, including pre- and postpurchase counseling, homebuyer education, purchase and rehab lending, paint grants, pre-foreclosure counseling and reverse-mortgage counseling.
 
In November 1998, VNHS received $500,000 in special funds for neighborhood revitalization from the NeighborWorks Campaign for Home Ownership 2002 to apply toward its crime-prevention program. This funding, Category B of the Home-ownership Pilot, encouraged NeighborWorks organizations to explore innovative ways to tighten the links between home ownership and neighborhood revitalization in their communities.

The Pilot.  During 1998, NeighborWorks America provided funding, technical assistance and training to help several organizations demonstrate how home ownership helps cultivate healthy neighborhoods. Organizations participating in the Homeownership Pilot focused on various strategies, including income-mixing, home-purchase financing with rehabilitation, resident-leadership programs, individual development account (IDA) programs, and small business development.
 
Participating organizations established a common ground for planning, implementing and evaluating revitalization strategies across the nation, and each hired a professional researcher to evaluate the effectiveness of the selected strategies. The goal was not only to identify strategies that worked, but also to identify and develop new strategies based on the outcomes desired and needs recognized in the communities.

The Program at VNHS.  VNHS targeted four small areas for its revitalization program, consisting of approximately 260 households. Staff worked with the Vallejo Neighborhood Revitalization (VNR) program to address multiple neighborhood issues, including blight, neighborhood safety, resident leadership and increased home-ownership opportunities. The funding was used to pay the researcher, pay half the salary of a “beat health officer,” and purchase and rehabilitate homes for sale to first-time homebuyers. VNHS stayed active in each target neighborhood for one year.

Knock and Talks.  To evaluate a neighborhood properly and determine what was needed, VNHS conducted “knock and talks,” where staff literally knocked on doors and talked to people in the neighborhood. This resident input was vital in determining the needs and problems of each neighborhood, and in deciding what services were needed for each household. VNHS created a form for assessing individual properties and selected neighborhood aspects, such as trash, car parking, etc., which also identified areas in which homes were vulnerable to crime.

Neighborhood Clean-up.  Staff organized information from the “knock and talks” and scheduled a neighborhood clean-up six months into the project. VNHS recruited hundreds of volunteers and went through each neighborhood, cleaning yards and streets. The event was a major collaborative effort; dumpsters were donated, the fire department got involved, as well as the police department, city officials, and volunteers from other neighborhoods. Volunteers and residents cleaned up streets, trimmed hedges and trees, pulled weeds, painted fences, and hauled off an average of 16 dumpsters of trash from each area. Residents also were taught how to maintain their neighborhood after the clean-up, and were informed of resources available to help with home maintenance and upkeep. The day ended with a neighborhood gathering, including a barbecue and music.

Crime-Prevention Trainings.  An additional component of VNHS’s neighborhood-revitalization strategy was the creation of crime-prevention training courses, made available to all residents. Each training is ongoing — occurring monthly or bimonthly — and is conducted jointly with the beat health officer.

• Training #1: Introduction to Crime Prevention. This two-hour course was developed to improve the safety and quality of life in Vallejo neighborhoods. Participants learn about the components of a crime, where crime exists, and how to identify criminal activity, as well as the components of crime prevention, personal and property safety tips, and how to build a crime-resistant property and neighborhood. The course also covers how to start a neighborhood watch and shares available resources.
   
• Training #2: Target-Hardening Your Home. In this one-hour training, participants learn advanced methods of home safety. The course covers how to design safety measures on a property, including landscaping (keeping shrubs trimmed to three feet or less and maintaining a clear view around doors and windows), lighting, locks, neighborhood-watch groups, burglary prevention and vehicle security. Participants learn that if these elements are addressed, a criminal has no place to hide on the property.
   
• Training #3: Drug and Alcohol Awareness. This two-hour program teaches participants about drug and alcohol abuse. The instructor identifies the types of drugs typically found in the neighborhood and how to recognize signs of drug abuse and drug paraphernalia. The instructor also teaches how to work with police to resolve problems, and how to help people with drug issues. The class goes on a neighborhood tour and discusses resolutions to drug and alcohol abuse and crime prevention through environmental design (visibility, landscaping, accesses and lighting).
   
• Training #4: Landlord Training Course. The four-hour landlord training course shows landlords how to better maintain and manage their properties, and prevent drug and criminal activity. The property rehabilitation specialist attends this training to talk about rehab available for rental properties.

Partnership.  VNHS’s Crime Prevention Program involves a large and effective partnership. The police department helps by funding half the beat health officer position and helping residents start or enhance their neighborhood-watch groups. The fire department surveyed each target area, handed out weed abatements and helped clean up yards on neighborhood clean-up day. Code enforcement did an initial assessment of each property, and identified code violations (e.g., peeling paint, dilapidated fencing, etc.) that could be addressed during the clean-up. The Fighting Back Partnership (see Winning Strategies Volume 1, page 6–35), which works with personal issues (such as alcohol and drug abuse, employment issues, etc.), referred persons in need of help to its family resource center.

Data Collection and Evaluation.  The evaluation tools VNHS used included a mix of published data sources and neighborhood surveys and interviews. Success was measured by increased resident satisfaction (through resident-satisfaction surveys), improved property conditions (measured by windshield surveys), and increased home purchases (measured by HMDA data by census tract). Researchers also interviewed real estate brokers with experience in the target areas, before and after the revitalization efforts. The interviews provided information on real estate trends in all of Vallejo, plus insights into the target areas.

• At the end of one year, residents’ perceptions of the neighborhood were generally more positive, particularly with regard to safety and perceived drug use. Even so, many people still thought drug abuse was a problem. Most residents were less tolerant than before of criminal activities outside their homes, and realized it was their job to police their neighborhood and keep it crime resistant.
   
• The average sales price in one target area rose 36.5 percent during the revitalization project, and has risen another 10 percent since.
   
• VNHS purchased and rehabilitated five properties in the target area. All five were sold to first-time homebuyers, and each was sold for more than VNHS’s investment.
   
• VNHS provided 21 paint grants for low-income households, partially funded by the special revitalization funds.
   
• As a result of the “knock and talks,” VNHS met five additional homeowners in need of rehab loans. They were not funded through the pilot program, but were approved and funded through CDBG, HOME and affordable-housing funds.
   
• The number of originating loans increased in each target area, showing that homebuying increased in each.
   
• VNHS conducted approximately 16 crime-prevention trainings with 10 to 15 people, on average, at each. All crime-prevention training materials can be found on-line at www.vnip.com.

• It is critical to ask residents their perceptions of the neighborhood and what resources are needed. One-on-one contact with residents, such as “knock and talks,” is very successful. It not only helps with resident buy-in, but also informs residents of NHS resources and where to go for help.
   
• It is very important to stay informed of the research results. An organization may benefit from hiring an in-house coordinator for the project who will not only go out into the field, but also evaluate the outcomes and communicate the findings right away. This gives the organization an increased ability to learn from successes and failures as the project goes along. For example, as the researcher learns that a particular strategy is not working, changes to it can be implemented. If additional staff resources are needed, secure additional funding prior to implementing the program.
   
• Involving a large partnership has both benefits and costs. Partnerships allow the program more resources, but take more energy and make it more difficult to build consensus. It is also very important for any one partner’s role not to seem more significant than any other’s, and to recognize all partners for the hard work they are doing.
   
• Revitalizing neighborhoods with a high proportion of renters is more difficult than neighborhoods mostly of homeowners. During the clean-up, for example, many renters watched volunteers clean their areas and streets but did not participate. A neighborhood with a high proportion of renters also really needs participation from landlords.
   
• Sending code-enforcement officers to enforce code violations (including fines) often creates animosity. Instead, create an opportunity for code enforcement to identify what needs to be done, then provide help to fix the problems.
   
• Remember there are cultural, as well as personal, perceptions on what is acceptable, what is safe, what is clean, and what is not. An organization also must realize that some neighborhoods may not change, even though resources are available. It is best to accept those differences and learn to understand them. Nevertheless, it is important to make resources available and teach residents what is legally acceptable.

Agency interview with: Carol Hardy