RENEW Website!

We’re thrilled to share that RENEW has officially launched their website! This site is a useful tool to learn more about the importance of energy-efficiency and other environmental justice efforts in our region. Rochester ENergy Efficiency and Weatherization (RENEW) works with community partners to help make the homes of income-eligible residents more energy-efficient, healthier, and safer. They’re proud to have been doing this work for 9 years, and celebrated with an anniversary party in August, where this site was first previewed by longtime friends and partners in the work.

The website features a comprehensive list of community partners, client stories, photos, and more. Try using the Carbon Offset Calculator to calculate your total carbon emissions and the amount to donate to “offset” your footprint to the RENEW Climate Fund. This tool will help support our neighbors, and all contributions will stay local to help clean the air we all breathe.

We love to lift up the work of our fellow initiatives at the Community Foundation and invite you to explore this new website at your leisure!

Here’s a bit of a scavenger hunt to get you started: which award did RENEW win in July 2024?  

Eviction Diversion Resource Center

On October 15th, colleagues from fellow RACF initiative RENEW (Rochester ENergy Efficiency and Weatherization), passed along a memo to members from the National Low Income Housing Coalition about Monroe County’s new resource center.

The memo - found here - references ACT Rochester data and explains the utility of this important public service. The Eviction Diversion Resource Center (EDRC) is located within the Hall of Justice and is associated with Housing Court. In fact, the EDRC appears to be a nexus point for many housing-related organizations in Monroe County.

Housing has been a hot button issue and the EDRC and the article provide critical information to inform community members in need, as well as the stories we are telling about housing in Monroe County. Consider this some significant Brain Food!

National Zoning Atlas + Local Update

I attended Reconnect Rochester’s film event - “The Sprawl Effect” - last week, and it was fantastic! Information, important conversation, and inspiration were plentiful.

At the event, I was introduced to a new resource that is relevant to zoning conversations that I know are happening across our community. Reminder: zoning codes were highlighted in Poverty, by America as a key area to focus on for poverty abolitionist work.

The resources is the National Zoning Atlas, an effort to digitize, demystify, and democratize (the 3 Ds!) zoning codes across urban counties in the US. Of particular interest is an interactive map, that includes zoning information about much of Monroe County. In addition to the map, the website includes a section called ‘Atlases in Action’ that provides snapshots, examples of advocacy, analysis, and some curated research on the topic. It is worth perusing!

Note: the project’s focus seems to be urban areas and therefore only areas within Monroe County are included at this stage, and even within Monroe County there are some gaps (Irondequoit is not available, for example). The project is in building mode so we hope that their good work expands into the other 7 counties of our region.

Consider using the National Zoning Atlas to check your facts and inform your conversations about zoning codes in Monroe County! The link is also included on the National Data Sources and Services page under Resources (a great reference list!).

UPDATE: In a brilliant example of communicating and connecting, Shane Wiegand (of Our Local History at CCSI) alerted me to a local project done in collaboration with Dr. Stu Jordan at the University of Rochester on zoning regulations and city planning. Please find an excellent story map here and a map specific to exclusionary zoning in Monroe County (with 2018 data) here.

Federal Home Loan Banks

How’s your banking legislation history? Don’t worry if it’s not worthy of an A+ because Brookings provides a history lesson and accessible description of Federal Home Loan Banks in their August 8th, 2024 commentary: “How to Fix Federal Home Loan Banks.”

Our community has talked a lot about the intended and unintended consequences of the New Deal, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 has a role in that conversation. The good news is that there is a restructuring in progress, Brookings submitted commentary, and we all can get up to speed.

Keep in mind that this is information for policy at the federal level, but we know the effects of federal policy cascades into more local settings like ours!

Curated Blog Post: Central New York Community Foundation

Our friends at the Central New York Community Foundation posted a blog on July 11th titled "Lending Tree Study Ranked Syracuse Second in Economic Disparity."

I know what you're thinking - where does Rochester rank? Fortunately, we did not make the bottom five. Unfortunately, we are bottom six.

I encourage you to read the CNY blog post for their insight, and to look at the lending tree study itself (linked directly here). We have more work to do!

Curated Podcast: Working together to create affordable housing that lasts

On July 11th, the Next City Podcast shared a case study from Richmond, Virginia that offers a possible permanent affordable housing solution that is worth considering for our community. The Maggie Walker Community Land Trust (MWCLT) is a unique non-profit that is both a land bank and a community land trust. This means that, as a land bank, MWCLT can acquire land for little to no cost from the city, and as a community land trust, the organization can develop that land and sell the home at a low cost, while keeping the land itself in their name. This creates affordable housing in Richmond that is permanent; homeowners who buy from MWCLT can keep the home for generations, or sell it, but they must sell it at a capped price to an income-eligible buyer.  

The dual role of MWCLT is especially beneficial as it limits competition between the public and private sectors. This case study emphasizes the power that collaboration can have in generating solutions, a lesson that is close to my heart. I have the privilege of working with three initiatives at the Community Foundation, one being Rochester ENergy Efficiency and Weatherization (RENEW). RENEW is another example of a unique effort to address access to housing; we work with numerous community partners in our region to braid resources to administer home repair and weatherization grants, with the mission of making homes more energy efficient, healthier, and safer. (If you’re interested in learning more about RENEW, there is a case study about the initiative in our Inclusive Recovery dashboard that I’d recommend checking out).  

What working with RENEW has emphasized to me, and what this example from Richmond only further demonstrates, is that collaboration between various partners across the community sparks creative solutions to important issues, including in the field of housing. This podcast is a quick, interesting episode, and I invite you to give it a listen, to learn more about the history of the MWCLT and to revel in their recent successes! 

Contributed by Madison Esposito, Program Administrator for RACF Initiatives and University of Rochester graduate. 

Curated Post: Next City Covers Rochester as featured case about banking efforts

On June 3rd, 2024, nonprofit resource Next City posted a story titled “Why a Rochester Credit Union Wants the Local Government to Create Its Own Bank” as a case study for lenders meeting residents’ and small business owners’ needs. The Genesee Co-op Federal Credit Union is featured as part of a push to create a Bank of Rochester, a “public bank” intended to hold only government deposits and partner with local private lenders. 

The article outlines how the idea of a public bank would work and makes the argument for the potential of such a program. This idea is also a spark for thinking about alternative lending, alternative banking options. 

As we learned in Dr. Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America, the banking industry is a particularly institutionalized impediment for upward mobility. Consider this alternative, or come up with your own ideas, as you engage in conversations about banking equity, and the potential of this community to encourage home ownership, small business development, and our general upward mobility efforts. 

New Jersey is Taking Bold Action against Exclusionary Zoning

Local planning boards do not tend to be a hot topic or trendy conversation starter, but they may be a key location for actual social change. 

The state of New Jersey has heard the call and, in March 2024, enacted legislation to require affordable housing in communities that have historically been exclusive. According to the write-up by NextCity, the new law will make it harder for wealthy towns in New Jersey to block new developments, and it provides incentives for building near transit, redeveloping underutilized structures, and targeting the neediest families (by income, IDEA requirements, etc.) in addition to tax incentives. 

Some Facts About Rental Housing

On the heels of sociologist Matthew Desmond’s visit to Rochester in March 2024, housing and renting circumstances are top of mind for poverty abolitionists. (See also Eviction Lab resources, but note that none of the counties in our region are included). 

In March 2024, the Brookings Institution published an article “Ten Economic Facts about Rental Housing” that provides important information about the average circumstances of renters. 

Reading articles like this provides some data about housing realities in Rochester, the full 8-county region, and nationwide. 

What story do you have about renters? What did you learn in this article that challenged your story?