In the front room of the offices of Organization of the NorthEast (ONE), a small cardboard sign taped to the front of Carolyn Blackwell`s desk reads, appropriately enough: ”ONE Investment Center.”
Blackwell, who was hired last June as the director and only staff member of the nonprofit Investment Center, the community economic development arm of ONE, is indeed ”a one-man show,” as she puts it.
Her job is to help residents of Chicago`s Uptown and Edgewater communities acquire low-interest loans for home improvement, energy conservation and the purchase and rehabilitation of residential, commercial and mixed-use property. The Investment Center also offers technical support for dealing with rehab contracts.
Blackwell, 53, joined ONE at a time of transition for the organization. Before last June, the center, at 5121 N. Clark St., had been called the NorthEast Investment Center and had employed about eight people. Since 1985 it had successfully served as a mortgage broker until it hit some serious financial snags and went belly up in 1989.
When Blackwell came on board, the organization was renamed ONE Investment Center to signify a closer working relationship with the umbrella organization ONE and to herald a new, more successful era.
Guiding them through
Right now, Blackwell has about 11 clients. Most of them have low to moderate incomes and have had little or no experience maneuvering the twists and turns of securing finances to pay for home improvement projects or purchase property. Blackwell is concerned that as Uptown and Edgewater continue to undergo gentrification, residents will be increasingly pushed out and dislocated, rather than relocated.
”When I`m driving around Uptown,” says Blackwell, ”I see people sitting out on the streets with no homes, people standing and begging. The organization wants the same thing as anyone else wants. It wants clean, decent and affordable housing.”
It is not unusual for Blackwell to spend two to three months putting together a loan package for a client. She has been working since August with a man who wants to rehab his 70-year-old house. He has applied for a loan through the Investment Center`s Neighborhood Home Improvement Program, which offers loans with interest rates of 8.5 percent to people with gross family incomes of not more than $49,000. The program is offered in conjunction with Continental Bank and the Illinois Housing Development Authority.
”No bank would have assisted him this long and had patience with his loan for so long, trying to get all the pieces together,” says Blackwell, who has also helped her client secure licensed electricians and contractors for all of the rewiring and renovation that needs to be done.
Another program offered by the Investment Center is the People`s Conservation Loan Fund, which offers loans with 7 percent interest for projects such as insulation, tuckpointing and storm window installation.
The Investment Center does not yet have a first-time home buyers program, but Blackwell plans to have one in place in the next couple of months.
”One of the advantages of our programs is being able to go in with a piece of paper in hand and say, `I need some help,` and somebody just leads you and helps you through it,” she says.
Foundation grants provide much of the center`s income. Blackwell intends, however, to eventually package enough loans to generate substantial fees. The fee income raised from loans supports ONE`s advocacy work in housing and education.
A firm foundation
Blackwell is not new to housing issues. She spent 15 years in mortgage banking for Continental Bank and Independence Bank and worked as a bond research specialist for the Chicago Department of Housing. In these jobs, however, she rarely had the opportunity to forge personal ties with her clients.
”When you work at a bank, you don`t really deal with the person, you`re shuffling papers,” she explained. ”With the city, we dealt mainly with large buildings. I didn`t get to know the tenants, or the people who were moving into the building and being financed. (At ONE) I get to know the person from the very beginning.”
Now Blackwell`s days are filled with counseling clients and attending block clubs and other community meetings.
On the back wall of ONE`s offices hangs a massive, detailed map of the hundreds of multifamily, single-family and commercial buildings in Uptown and Edgewater. But the gray, mechanically drawn lines that depict dwellings and businesses belie the rich vitality and diversity of this part of Chicago.
Many of the area`s residents are Vietnamese, Chinese, East Indian and Hispanic. One of the challenges of Blackwell`s job, she says, is to discover all of their different needs. In February or March she hopes to hold a first- time home buyers` seminar in Vietnamese to assist those residents who would like to buy homes but find it difficult to get through the process because of language barriers.
Commercial boost
Some of her clients are interested in getting loans for businesses as well, so she would like to establish a small-business loan program, which, she believes, would enhance the area`s economy.
”It`s good to have homes,” says Blackwell, ”but if you don`t have businesses that are flourishing and people working, there`s no one to buy homes and live in apartments.”
With the onset of the winter months, home remodeling programs slow down and people think less about shopping for real estate. But a lull won`t stop Blackwell. She`s eager to spread the word about ONE Investment Center`s programs.
”I want to generate as many loans as possible,” she says. ”Anytime I get a loan closed that gives me satisfaction.”
