Neighborhoods Investment Plans
WIN recognizes its core competency is organizing not development; therefore, WIN recruited an investment banking and development partner to help WIN implement the Neighborhood Investment Fund: The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) from Philadelphia, a nationally recognized community development financial institution (www.trfund.com). The Reinvestment Fund and WIN through the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation have a long-standing relationship in developing/building Nehemiah housing in Philadelphia, designing and passing Philadelphia's $295 Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, and creating a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization and financing plan for Baltimore's blighted Oliver neighborhood next to Johns Hopkins University where the Dawson family was brutally murdered in 2003 by drug-dealer arsonists.
WIN raised private grants to underwrite TRF's services from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, PNC Bank, F.B. Heron Foundation, Wachovia Foundation, Fannie Mae Foundation, Bank of America Foundation, Cafritz Foundation, and Chevy Chase Bank to complete revitalization plans in the first four target neighborhoods:
WIN and TRF also completed and disseminated TRF’s DC Market Value Assessment analysis to determine the appropriate revitalization strategies and tools for various neighborhoods--based on market trends/realities, thereby harnessing market forces to spark revitalization and to benefit long-time residents.
In 2008, WIN worked with DC government officials to secure community and DC Council approval of the four comprehensive NIF neighborhood revitalization plans completed by WIN and The Reinvestment Fund in 2007 (Brightwood, Columbia Heights, Deanwood Heights, and Washington Highlands). DC Council reviewed and approved the plans in Summer 2008. FY 2009 NIF funds will be used to implement the plans.
As the result of WIN’s organizing, the DC Office of Planning completed 7 other Neighborhood Investment Fund plans in 2008:
Gage-Eckington (Ward # 5, NE) Anacostia (Ward # 8, SE)
H Street/NE Area (Ward # 6, NE) Shaw (Wards # 2 & 6, NW)
Logan Circle (Ward # 2, NW) Congress Heights (Ward # 8, SE)
Brookland/Upper RI Ave (Ward # 5, NE)
-- leaving only Bellevue (Ward # 8, SE/SW) to be finished in 2009. To view these plans, go to www.planning.dc.gov.
