New Community Corporation
Encyclopedia
| Year Incorporated | 1968 | |
|---|---|---|
| Organizer / Founder | Monsignor William J. Linder | |
| Headquarters | Newark, New Jersey Newark, New Jersey Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S... |
|
| Mission | Revitalize low-income urban neighborhoods | |
New Community Corporation (NCC) is a not-for-profit community development corporation based in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. It is recognized by urban development analysts as one of the largest and most diversified community development
Community development
Community development is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of local communities....
organizations in the United States. NCC followed in the footsteps of the community action component of the war on poverty
War on Poverty
The War on Poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent...
from the early 1960s, which emphasized community organizing
Community organizing
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. A core goal of community organizing is to generate durable power for an organization representing the community, allowing it to influence...
, provision of a variety of community-enhancing services, and resident participation in agency operation. Early prototypes of the community action movement included local housing and service agencies started by the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
Gray Areas Initiative and the United States Office of Economic Opportunity, and the federal / private Mobilization for Youth in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Formation
New Community Corporation was formed by a group of community leaders in 1968 as a response to the riots1967 Newark riots
The 1967 Newark riots were a major civil disturbance that occurred in the city of Newark, New Jersey between July 12 and July 17, 1967. The six days of rioting, looting, and destruction left 26 dead and hundreds injured.-Social unrest:...
of July, 1967, which left 26 dead and caused approximately $15 million in property damage. A local Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
church parish facilitated a process of community organization
Community organizing
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. A core goal of community organizing is to generate durable power for an organization representing the community, allowing it to influence...
that identified the needs of low-income neighborhoods in Newark's Central Ward
Central Ward, Newark, New Jersey
Central Ward is the heart of Newark. It was initially populated by Connecticut Puritans, became for a time primarily Jewish, and is currently primarily African-American....
. As a result of this process, the New Community Corporation was formally incorporated with a board of directors composed entirely of community residents. Based upon input from local residents regarding community needs, the board decided to focus New Community's initial efforts on construction and operation of low-income housing.
Several years of planning, fundraising and negotiation with local, state and federal officials followed. By 1973, New Community had secured property and financing commitments that would allow it to construct a 120-unit family housing complex.
Housing ventures
NCC's "Homes" family housing complex was finally built as a series of five-story mid-rise buildings surrounding a center courtyard. It was occupied in 1975. In later years, NCC utilized high-rise design for senior citizen housing (as did many other low-income senior housing managers; senior citizens are generally seen to accommodate better to high-density elevator buildings than families with children). However, NCC switched to 2 and 3 story townhouseTownhouse
A townhouse is the term historically used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in many other countries to describe a residence of a peer or member of the aristocracy in the capital or major city. Most such figures owned one or more country houses in which they lived for much of the year...
design for most newly constructed family housing projects thereafter.
After the "Homes" family complex opened, NCC continued on an ambitious low-income housing development effort, including new construction, rehabilitation of older buildings that were abandoned or converted from other use, and acquisition of occupied housing complexes from other owners. Most of New Community's housing efforts were centered in Newark, but by 1995, the organization was also managing low-income complexes in Jersey City
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
, Englewood
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...
, and a market-rate housing development in suburban Eatontown, NJ. The latter complex, called Stony Hill Apartments, was obtained from the portfolio of a failed savings & loan
Savings and Loan crisis
The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s was the failure of about 747 out of the 3,234 savings and loan associations in the United States...
institution. NCC originally intended to dedicate some of Stony Hill's apartments to low-income apartment seekers, but decided to sell the complex to private interests at a profit. A senior low-income housing complex in urban Orange, New Jersey
Orange, New Jersey
The City of Orange is a city and township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 30,134...
was opened by NCC in 2003.
Most of NCC's housing consists of subsidized rental units for low and very-low income families. However, in 1998, NCC opened its first homeownership project for working families, the 206-unit Community Hills complex built on the site of the former Hayes Homes high-rise public housing
Public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
towers. Under the terms of a HUD
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, is a Cabinet department in the Executive branch of the United States federal government...
HOPE 1 grant, the Newark Housing Authority donated land for this development, and HUD subsidized development and construction costs. Since then NCC has developed 24 additional homeownership units, and is planning further homeownership projects in neighborhoods where most housing is currently rented. This serves to promote an enhanced sense of stability and resident involvement in these areas.
Child daycare affiliation
During the early 1970s, New Community was also active in developing and constructing or rehabilitating facilities to be used by the Babyland Nursery organization (later Babyland Family Services) for the daycareDay care
Child care or day care is care of a child during the day by a person other than the child's legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child's immediate family...
of infants and children. Babyland is a not-for-profit community organization that originated within the same community organization process that followed the July 1967 Civic Disorders in Newark. As a result of common origins, Babyland and New Community coordinated and integrated their facilities and program activities for approximately three decades. Although Babyland served many residents of New Community housing, the proportion of children and families living outside the New Community network increased over this time.
Initial diversifications
In 1978, NCC decided to expand its horizons beyond low-income housing and daycare facility development. In keeping with its mission to provide jobs and economic activity in local neighborhoods, New Community took over the management, maintenance and security functions at its housing (and Babyland day care centers). NCC also began providing social service support for its residents through social workers assigned to its buildings.Health care
In 1986, New Community expanded into health care with the completion of a newly-constructed Extended Care Facility (an $11 million, 180- bed nursing homeNursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
serving primarily Medicaid
Medicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
patients). It also established a series of medical day care programs based at the Extended Care Facility and at some of its senior apartment buildings. By 1992 it added a home health care
Home care
Home Care, , is health care or supportive care provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals Home Care, (also referred to as domiciliary care or social care), is health care or supportive care provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals Home Care, (also referred to as...
agency and a homemaking assistance program serving medically indigent households. In 1999, New Community took over the Family Service Bureau of Newark, giving NCC greater resources in dealing with mental health issues
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
. In 2000, the 500-employee Essex Valley Visiting Nurse Association was merged into the New Community network (through common boards of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
), expanding NCC's client base and the range of professional nursing services that it could provide.
Human services
By 1985, New Community had expanded its outreach to its own family residents and to other families in the community with a youth activity program, a credit union, and a job referral agency. After 1990, these were supplemented with a variety of grant-funded programs targeting youth and families having particular needs, including services for persons with HIVHIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
or AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. Also, New Community instituted a bi-lingual Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
outreach program (the Hispanic Development Corporation) in 1992. Finally, in 1997, New Community opened a newly constructed 17000 sq ft (1,579.4 m²). Neighborhood Center which contains a stage, a basketball court and classrooms. This facility has been a key asset in expanding NCC's outreach to youth and families.
In 1988, New Community partnered with the Hartz Mountain Corporation and the State of New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
to newly construct a 102-unit apartment complex dedicated to homeless
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
families in the Newark area (named Harmony House). New Community provides an intensive support program for Harmony House residents; this includes on-site daycare (through cooperation with Babyland Nursery), counseling, education, substance abuse program referrals, job placement and housing relocation assistance, and after-school activities for youth. Although generally considered successful, the State of New Jersey did not replicate the Harmony House model in other cities.
Business ventures
In 1983, New Community initiated an ambitious small business development effort in order to create job opportunities and other economic stimulation within its target neighborhoods. It began the rehabilitation of a former Roman Catholic church built in 1882 into the Saint Joseph's office-entertainment complex. The building opened for business in 19n85 with a fine-dining restaurant, a sandwich shop, a conference area and an exercise spa. (New Community utilized the office area for its expanding management needs). These business ventures were controlled by individual for-profit corporations controlled by a New Community subsidiary (through common boards of directors).
In 1987, NCC teamed up with the Pathmark
Pathmark
Pathmark is a supermarket chain headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey. It was founded in 1968 when its then parent, Supermarkets General Corporation, pulled out of the ShopRite retailers' cooperative...
supermarket chain to develop a $12 million, 55,000 (interior) square foot supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
and satellite store complex having a 227 car parking lot. The new supermarket opened in 1989, located in a Newark neighborhood that saw its last supermarket close near the time of the 1967 Civic Disorders. New Community invested nearly 10 years of planning effort and legal fees in acquiring site control, and gaining zoning clearances and financing (despite a variety of objections from landowners and political interests). Using the same business model from the St. Joseph's complex, NCC set up a variety of satellite businesses adjacent to the Pathmark supermarket, including a Dunkin' Donuts
Dunkin' Donuts
Dunkin' Donuts is an international doughnut and coffee retailer founded in 1950 by William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts; it is now headquartered in Canton...
franchise, a fast-food restaurant, a print shop, and a mailbox / shipping services center. The development of the Pathmark center has been cited by various academic and urban assistance groups as a textbook example of reintroducing supermarkets into inner-city areas, and the site has been visited by a variety of other community development groups from cities throughout the United States.
In contrast to a small Fashion Institute producing custom clothing and home furnishings (NCC's smallest business venture), NCC developed a $3 million, 38000 sq ft (3,530.3 m²) factory facility on the site of a former Borden's milk processing plant. The "New Community Technologies" factory was dedicated to the construction of pre-fabricated housing and school building components for sale to local housing developers and school boards, and opened in 2001 (after limited production commenced in an adjacent storage facility in 1999).
Job training
In 1993, New Community expanded into vocational trainingVocational education
Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...
, starting various career classes for low-income residents (of both its own housing and adjacent neighborhoods). The initial classes centered on career fields that New Community was already familiar with, e.g. health care and food service; however, the curriculum was later expanded to a broad variety of career subjects. In 1999, NCC centralized most of these classes within a new $2.4 million, 24500 square feet (2,276.1 m²) Workforce Development Center, and increased its cooperation with State and local welfare-to-work initiatives. One training program remained at a special facility, a cooperative venture with the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
and a local Ford dealership that trains low-income urban residents to assume careers as professional auto mechanics. That program was started in 1996 at a garage equipped with classrooms, tools, and modern auto diagnostic equipment.
Financial services
By 1998, New Community further expanded its presence in the financial servicesFinancial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...
field (it opened a credit union
Credit union
A credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates, and providing other financial services to its members...
for residents, employees and families otherwise served by NCC in 1985). It began two new programs, the first offering loans for the start-up or expansion of small businesses that create jobs for Newark area residents. The second venture, called Garden State Affordable Housing, matched investors interested in federal low-income housing tax credits
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit is a dollar-for-dollar tax credit in the United States for affordable housing investments. It was created under the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that gives incentives for the utilization of private equity in the development of affordable housing aimed at low-income...
with developers of low-income housing throughout the State of New Jersey, operating as an investment pool. This mechanism provides much-needed financing for the development of affordable rental housing.
Education
New Community had become involved in elementary gradePrimary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
level education in the mid-1980s, through a cooperative relationship with a local Roman Catholic parish school. However, in the late 1990s, NCC took advantage of New Jersey State legislation allowing the formation of private charter school
Charter school
Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...
s that operate with funding from the local school board. In 1999, NCC opened its New Horizons Charter School for 500 Kindergarten to 5th grade students at a newly constructed facility in Newark. Then, in 2000, NCC gained permission from the N.J. State Board of Education to open a second charter school for 300 students in K-8th grades. This school, called the "Lady Liberty Academy", was opened in September, 2001 at a rehabilitated Roman Catholic parish school that had recently closed. Also in 2000, NCC opened an Early Learning Center at its Community Hills homeownership complex which offers formal pre-school
Nursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
classes for 3 and 4-year olds.
Financial uncertainties
In 2001, after taking over the Essex Valley Visiting Nurse Association, NCC and its direct affiliates employed approximately 2,000 employees and managed or had developed 2,818 units of housing. However, financial pressures and accumulated debt stemming from the organization's rapid expansion in the 1990s, and from reductions in federal housing subsidies, required an assessment of priorities and a rationalization of programs lacking sufficient financial support (i.e., from grantsGrant (money)
Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...
, donations, fees or sales). By late 2004, several of the for-profit business ventures were closed, including the building components factory, the print shop, the fast-food restaurant at the Pathmark store, the mailbox store, and the exercise spa. The 754-unit, five-story Douglass-Harrison housing complex built in the 1930s and sold to NCC in 1983 for $50 by Prudential Insurance
Prudential Financial
The Prudential Insurance Company of America , also known as Prudential Financial, Inc., is a Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, investment management, and other financial products and services to both retail and institutional customers throughout the...
was closed in 2005. Douglass-Harrison was difficult to maintain and its very small apartments and lack of elevators failed to meet modern housing standards (NCC plans to build 130 modern housing units on the site). Also, several branches of NCC's medical day care program were closed. By 2002, there was a reduction in managerial staffing at the corporate level. Also, in 2001 New Community and Babyland Family Services terminated their cooperative agreement to jointly develop new facilities and programs and integrate them within NCC's broad array of activities.
Conclusion
NCC continues into the early 21st Century on a cautious path. It is developing additional homeownership housing, and recently built and opened a four-story office building so as to consolidate the management of its medical care services. It recently opened a for-profit temporary staffing agency for office workers, and continues to participate in welfare-to-workWelfare reform
Welfare reform refers to the process of reforming the framework of social security and welfare provisions, but what is considered reform is a matter of opinion. The term was used in the United States to support the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act...
assistance contracts. The Pathmark supermarket itself continues to operate as a successful and profitable business venture, both for Pathmark as operator of the store, and for New Community as owner and manager of the store complex. And NCC continues to be cited for its long list of accomplishments; had there not been a New Community Corporation, the City of Newark
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
would not have experienced the same level of neighborhood and downtown re-investment as has occurred since 1980.
However, a growing number of experienced community development organizations in Newark now compete with NCC for vital grant funding. Most of these organizations did not exist when NCC opened its first housing complex in 1975. Also, a 1993 ethnographic study by the New School University (published in 1997) indicates that although New Community's broad range of services benefited its tenants in numerous ways, it could not shield them from the negative forces plaguing the surrounding neighborhoods, i.e. crime, gang activity, substance abuse, unemployment, social isolation, insufficient education and other human capital, etc. Although community development corporations such as the New Community Corporation will continue to play a significant role in addressing the needs of low-income inner city
Inner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
residents, their promise as the "magic bullet"
Magic bullet
Magic bullet may refer to:* In the German folk legend Freischütz, an enchanted bullet obtained by a marksman through a contract with the devil....
against the cycle of poverty
Cycle of poverty
In economics, the cycle of poverty is the "set of factors or events by which poverty, once started, is likely to continue unless there is outside intervention."...
is now in doubt.