BY JOSHUA PHILLIPS
Northeast News
June 5, 2013
Grants from the Greater Kansas City Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) will be used to provide affordable housing and support urban development in the Scarritt Renaissance neighborhood.
Mattie Rhodes Center and Hardesty Renaissance received a $65,000 planning grant and are working together to identify and develop one multi-family housing project and one or more single-family projects in Scarritt Renaissance.
“It is a planning grant so Scarritt Renaissance can make sure they are able to plan to meet their community’s needs and figure out financial affordability,” LISC Program Officer Micah Kubic said. “It is really exciting and has the potential for improving the Northeast Kansas City housing stock.”
“The funding provided by Greater Kansas City LISC represents a significant contribution to restarting housing development in our neighborhoods, located in Northeast Kansas City, Missouri,” said Jim Turner, director of Hardesty Renaissance. “It’s a great boost to our mission and we are grateful for the support.”
Construction work on designated housing sites will not start until the Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association (SRNA) and the Mattie Rhodes Center designate areas to be worked on.
Scarritt Renaissance is part of LISC’s NeighborhoodsNOW program which aims to “rebuild neighborhoods physically, economically and socially by concentrating funding from government, philanthropic and corporate partners in targeted urban core neighborhoods,” according to LISC’s website.
“The hope with this grant is to address issues with housing, address the dangerous buildings to be removed and to renovate vacant houses to be used by new residents,” said Leslie Caplan, SRNA president. “This will help move the development plans along with our focus on improving the housing conditions and will help remove the blight in the area.”
Caplan says that the SRNA will work closely with the Mattie Rhodes Center as planning for the redevelopment projects in the neighborhood takes place.
