Sustainable Neighborhood Development Strategies, Inc.

Building revitalized and sustainable neighborhoods where working families benefit and everyone thrives.
 
Why Pittsburgh?

The Pittsburgh neighborhood provides an opportunity for SNDSI and The Annie E. Casey Foundation to apply an "asset-based" approach to neighborhood revitalization. Pittsburgh is a small, historic, African-American neighborhood just south of Atlanta's downtown. Its long history as an affordable refuge for working-class families has been severely compromised by mortgage fraud, foreclosures and property abandonment, resulting in widespread vacancies, deterioration, and neglect. Despite this adverse environment, Pittsburgh has two of the highest performing public schools in the city. It also has a sturdy stock of small, durable houses laid along a traditional grid of residential streets intersecting wider corridors that support neighborhood commercial development. Its dynamic, engaged resident population is served by a deeply rooted community development organization. The neighborhood's proximity to Atlanta's downtown core, major interstate highways and an international airport are additional plusses. SNDSI's asset-based strategy employs all these factors in a community-driven plan to achieve transformation that is economically and environmentally sustainable, with measurable benefits targeted to impact established residents of the community.

The Preservation of Pittsburgh


In 2007 the foreclosure crisis hit Atlanta.  A study by Georgia Tech Associate Professor, Dan Immergluck indicated that 10% of all foreclosures in the metro Atlanta area occurred in Neighborhood Planning Unit V, with the vast majority of those occurring in the Pittsburgh neighborhood. In response to this crisis, Sustainable Neighborhood Development Strategies, Inc., the Pittsburgh Community Improvement Association, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation-Atlanta Civic Site came together in 2008 to craft a plan to arrest the downward spiral in the Pittsburgh neighborhood and return it to the vibrant and thriving neighborhood it once was.

 

 

Goals of the Preservation of Pittsburgh Plan

 

The partners crafted an innovative, long-range plan to:

 

  • Return the neighborhood to the safe, healthy and vibrant community it once was;
  • Exemplify sustainable economic and environmental principles,
  • Provide safe, affordable and energy efficient homes;
  • Ensure safe walkways to schools; and
  • Generate job opportunities for area residents.

 

With a vacancy rate of 43% in Pittsburgh, SNDSI and its partners sought to convert the neighborhood's vacant and abandoned housing into occupied housing to help the neighborhood become a thriving and vibrant mixed-income community again. To do this, SNDSI and its partners are acquiring a significant number of homes in targeted areas in order to influence the neighborhood market, attracting other homebuyers and investors to the neighborhood to ensure that vacancy rates decrease. As of May 1, 2011, 95 vacant strategically-located properties had been acquired in the Pittsburgh neighborhood. 

 


 

Holistic Family-Strengthening Components

 

The Preservation of Pittsburgh effort is building on the programs of The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Atlanta Civic Site (ACS). Since 2001, ACS has worked in NPU-V to achieve measurable results in three areas: Education Achievement, Family Economic Success, and Neighborhood Transformation.

 

 

As a part of its work in NPU-V, Casey invested in the launch of The Center for Working Families, Inc. in NPU-V's Mechanicsville neighborhood in 2005. TCWFI provides NPU-V residents with workforce development, work supports, and asset-building programs and has placed more than 1,100 residents in jobs since its founding. TCWFI also prepares area residents for the housing and employment opportunities associated with the Preservation of Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh neighborhood was founded as a predominantly African-American neighborhood in the early 20th century. According to the 2010 Census, the neighborhood was home to 3.468 residents. The neighborhood has many assets that hold the potential for making it a great place for children and families

  • The Pittman Park and Recreation Center offer a playground, Olympic-size pool, gymnasium, tennis courts and basketball courts.
  • The Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center Atlanta offers more than 50,000 square feet of worship, arts, recreation and community space.
  • Heritage Station Apartments, built in 2007, provides 220 high-quality, mixed-income apartment units.
  • The Center for Working Families, Inc., located just outside the neighborhood's boundaries, provides targeted employment, workforce development, asset building and entrepreneurial services and supports to Pittsburgh residents.
  • The Early Learning and Literacy Resource Center, located just outside the neighborhood's boundaries, provides high quality, year-round early learning and education to children, ages six weeks to four years designed to support their transition into kindergarten and grade school, parent engagement and education programming, and connections to health services and supports.