Minority-focused economic development group plans housing, gardening initiatives

A minority-focused economic development organization is concluding its first year with its first housing initiative under way and a community gardening initiative planned.

The Regional Economic Development Institute (RED-I) was launched early this year in Cedar Rapids to fill a need for more economic-development assistance, career assistance and housing opportunities for blacks and other minority groups.

Cedar Rapids has about 8,400 minority residents, said Executive Director Karl Cassell, who is also executive director of the Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Commission. Only about half of them are adults.

Financially, the not-for-profit group is still operating on a shoestring with the efforts of its volunteer board, Cassell said. That may improve next year if the group is successful in obtaining a federal certified economic-development corporation status and other certifications that could help it obtain grants and funding to administer projects.

RED-I recently completed the redevelopment of a duplex in the Wellington Heights neighborhood that will be leased to low-income households, Cassell said. The project used community volunteers and a minority contractor.

The old foursquare duplex, in poor condition and threatened with demolition, was provided to RED-I by the Affordable Housing Network so that it could be preserved and meet housing needs.

Cassell said RED-I would like to redevelop other older properties to add decent low-income housing using leveraging equity built up in the Wellington Heights duplex to obtain financing.

The dislocation of low-income families from rental housing in the city's near-downtown neighborhoods increased in recent years due to the economy, and could escalate because of a newly passed city nuisance ordinance, Cassell said. The ordinance will allow for penalties against the owners of properties that are the subject of frequent police calls or violations of city building and property maintenance codes.

Cassell fears the ordinance, combined with the disappearance of affordable single-family houses for parking in the city's medical and college areas, could lead to higher rental costs and fewer housing opportunities for low-income families.

"We want to be the balance," Cassell said. "We want to be the other option."

The community has a scarcity of minority housing contractors. Cassell hopes the low-income housing efforts could foster startup minority contractors, such as the one who worked on the duplex.

RED-I also is working with local building trades to help bring more minority apprentices into the trades, Cassell said. A group of retired electricians made the duplex renovation possible by volunteering thousands of dollars worth of electrical wiring and other assistance.

One of the group's next projects will be to provide support for community gardens on whatever vacant property it is allowed to use in the city's lower income neighborhoods. Adults and children will be encouraged to garden, for reasons both nutritional and financial, Cassell said.

Inclusivity is one of the guiding principles of the group's efforts, Cassell said.

"We want to incorporate the people who are less inclined to ask or less inclined to be asked to be asked to be involved in opportunities in our community," Cassell said.

RED-I has rented space in the Paul Engle Center for Neighborhood Arts at 1600 4th Ave. SE, but the group is expected to give up the space for the time being because it's not offering any community-based social programs. RED-I's main office, where its board meets about every two weeks, will remain at 375 Collins Road NE, Suite 103.