Crowdfunding for Communities

By Katie Bass, Project Associate.

Lately I’ve been doing some research on crowdfunding, and it is an exciting time for entrepreneurs, investors, and communities everywhere with all the new online platforms and the passage of the JOBS Act in 2012. Every time I start reading a story about a project that was crowdfunded in a community, I stumble upon another one and another one - the projects are all so innovative and inspiring that I get lost down a rabbit hole. While crowdfunding for entrepreneurs and charities have been in use for a while through sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and FundMe, lately I’ve been interested in the way that communities are using crowdfunding to target civic-backed projects. Cities large and small are turning to crowdfunding as a way to close the gap in budget shortages. In other cities, residents have grown impatient with unfunded or underfunded projects and have used crowdfunding to finance these local projects.

There are several crowdfunding websites that specifically target community-based projects that focus on civic improvements, such as neighbor.ly. Only governmental entities, neighborhood groups, and certain nonprofits are allowed to fundraise on their website. The Kansas City-based company has had success, one Kansas City neighborhood raised enough money to supplement the cost of a new playground that couldn’t be fully funded through the city’s budget. Uruut, an Atlanta-based company, is another fundraising platform for community projects. The Ashford Park Education Foundation recently used this site to raise over $100,000 to renovate and construct an outdoor classroom and amphitheater in Brookhaven, Georgia.

In New York, a community raised over $5,000 on Ioby for an urban, student farm in the middle of Central Brooklyn that is used as a living classroom for the local schools. The students can take produce home to their families and the remaining produce is sold at a student-run farm stand. The project didn’t cost much and was low on the city’s priority list, yet through crowdfunding, the community was able to raise the money and it has subsequently made a positive impact on local residents.

In Rhode Island, the small town of Central Falls had to declare bankruptcy in 2011. With a small budget and little funding, the Director of Planning and Economic Development turned to crowdfunding on Citizinvestor to purchase trash and recycling cans for the city’s park. They raised over $10,000 dollars and found that people wanted to pay for things where they could see direct results, by cleaning up the park, they could see exactly where their money went. Also, they knew the realities of the city’s financial limitations.

Crowdfunding for civic-backed projects may not be right for every community. It requires residents and stakeholders to be committed and attached to their community enough to open up their wallets, beyond taxes, and some taxpayers may be concerned that the government is simply double dipping into their pockets. Transparency is always necessary when it comes to where the government is spending as well as ensuring the realities of budgeting are clear. It’s doubtful that crowdfunding could be used to pay for the salary of an municipal employee, but it could be used to pay for a community garden or neighborhood park – both are relatively less expensive and are typically lower on the municipality’s priority list.

There is a growing trend of people desiring to invest in their communities and improve them, whether it’s to clean up the parks, have a community garden, create a bikeshare program, or simply to add some art to brighten up the neighborhood. Residents enjoy seeing where the money they donate goes and also having the power to influence which community projects obtains funding. This sense of community pride is being seen in cities across the nation. It’s important to remember that although there can be many obstacles that can delay or prevent a project from getting funded through traditional sources, crowdfunding offers a valuable alternative to finance civic-backed projects and make positive changes in your community.

It Takes Hard Work to Make Positive Impressions

By Katie Bass, Project Associate.

“The key is not the age of the institution but its creativity and its persistence. A single game changer, no matter how transformative or creative, does not an economy reshape. Sustaining the gain means engaging in a continuous process of inquiry and investigation, reinvention and renewal, in which one gain leads to another, and then another, and then another. Successful metros, in other words, never stop. They do not rest on their laurels, they build on their successes.”

The Metropolitan Revolution by Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley

Often communities we work with say that one of their challenges is combating negative perceptions. Those negative perceptions are typically born out of a personal experience or a story of someone else’s experience – ah, the old adage that perception is reality. Shaping a long-lasting, positive impression on a visitor helps to reverse negative connotations of your community because not only do you make a positive impression on the visitor, that visitor passes on their experiences to their friends, coworkers, and perhaps even their blog followers – the impact of a single experience is multiplied much farther than one realizes.

I thought of this because I was in Denver last weekend for a friend’s wedding, and I must say, I was impressed with the Downtown Denver area. We stayed in the area around the 16th Street Mall – a pedestrian-only street, with the exception of the free mall shuttle that continuously drives from one end of the boulevard to the other. Not only was I impressed with the fact that they had efficient, convenient, and free transportation, the whole environment was spotless and felt surprisingly safe for a downtown in a major city. The is because the Downtown Denver Business Improvement District (BID) has committed to a clean and safe Downtown environment by making it a priority and having a year-round, seven-day-a-week schedule to keep up with the maintenance of the 16th Street Mall and its amenities. In addition to the year-round schedule of maintenance, the BID manages a Downtown Ambassador program that serves as a safe and welcoming presence in the area. The members are the eyes and ears of the place and focus on the quality of life aspects – such as panhandling and graffiti – that could diminish a visitor’s experience.

Over the past couple decades, the people in Denver have been making incredible strides to contribute to the area’s economic development success and aren’t looking to slow down any time soon. As Tami Door, President and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership so eloquently put it, “It’s not about the endgame so much as the roadmap. It’s a combination of thousands of tiny goals that project 20 years into the future.” Further making her point, “Some cities look to hit a homerun…we’ve been bunting year and year after year.” The revitalization of the 120-year old Union Station and its recent opening is just another, albeit much larger, project in the long-term commitment to the city’s future. Up next there are plans for rail service to the Denver International Airport within the next few years. The momentum behind these improvements began when the Downtown Denver Partnership, BID, and various other public and private partners, along with the City and County of Denver came together and produced the Denver Downtown Area Plan, which was adopted by the Denver City Council in 2007. Thanks to these and many other collaborations and partnerships, the community has its roadmap and together is continuously making positive changes and working hard to build a better city.

A successful plan for a community requires people that care enough to deliberately and continuously put in the effort to make their community better and that residents and stakeholders all buy-in to the process. Check out an inspiring crowdfunding video from Springfield, MO if you want to see evidence of people who love their community and are intentionally trying to make their home a better place to live. It’s a powerful, honest video and illustrates the pride people have in their community. While you’re on youtube, there’s another video, slightly longer, that I also enjoyed watching recently. This one is a Ted Talk that Jason Roberts did on the Better Block project. The Better Block project is a grassroots effort where caring residents and stakeholders across the U.S. are working together to illustrate the potential that areas in their town have and what they could look like if they were invested in or if ordinances changed to allow for certain businesses. It’s important that economic development efforts successfully leverage such groups, as they are in Denver and many other cities.

It’s all very inspiring, but at the same time, daunting. Economic development efforts are never-ending and require a lot of hard work, but with the right people and vision, a community can make great things happen.

Growth and Replacement, A Look At Employment Projections

By Katie Bass, Project Associate. 

In community and economic development, we are constantly trying to look into our crystal ball to prepare communities for changes in consumer preferences, technological advances, and business practices or organizational structures. We try to see what industries are growing and which are declining so that communities can best prepare their workforce through educational attainment and workforce training. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes ten-year employment projections every two years to aid policy makers, career advisers, economic developers, and educational stakeholders in order to appropriately adjust recruitment efforts of companies and training program development.

There are two key indicators that, together, offer insight into growing professions. One, clearly, is the growth rate of the occupation which estimates how many jobs are going to be created or lost in a certain field over the next ten years. A number of factors can influence demand for certain occupations. Changing demographics and consumer preferences can increase the demand for certain services, while a technological change can create demand for a new service or product and conversely cause the decline in demand for another product. The changing demographics of the population as the percentage of older Americans grows, affects demand for health care services. As we saw during the recession, health care was one of the few sectors to post positive annual growth rates. Other changes, such as technological advances, can create rapid changes in the labor market. Look simply at the devastating effect that technology had on the job market in the postal industry. The number of postal service mail carriers is projected to decline by 26.8 percent by 2022. Similarly, my co-worker, Evan, blogged about the change in employment at businesses related to photography and how it impacted consumer preference as technology advanced, from one-hour photos to Facebook photo albums and cell phone cameras.

The other key indicator – job openings due to growth and replacement needs – measures the number of job openings from retirements and/or people leaving the occupation, in addition to the number of jobs created. This estimate reveals areas of potential weakness in a community due to the impending retirement of baby boomers that may be overlooked if you only examine the growth rate. It also includes those occupations that are typically short-term and “stepping-stones” as employees move along their career path. Occupations such as bartenders and waiters/waitresses are popular for college students because of their flexible schedules; however, once they graduate, they leave that occupation (hopefully) never to return. Tellers potentially act as an entry-level position for finance careers. As the employee gets their degree and moves up the corporate ladder, they vacate that teller position permanently. Regardless of whether the employee is a retiree or simply moving to a new position, between 2012 and 2022, replacement needs are expected to account for 67.2 percent of job openings, or roughly 34 million of the projected 50.6 million job openings.

Take for example, air traffic controllers. Employment as an air traffic controller is expected to increase by only 1.4 percent, or 400 jobs. However, over the next ten years there will be nearly 12,000 job openings as air traffic controllers retire (approximately one-third of total employment in the occupation). Recall the 1981 illegal federal strike by air traffic controllers and Reagan’s unprecedented firing of around 11,000 strikers – at the time there were roughly 17,500 total air traffic controllers working for the FAA. Reagan further placed a life time ban on the strikers from ever working as controllers for the FAA again, and as a result, thousands of new employees were hired and trained to be air traffic controllers. The FAA has an age distribution unlike many occupations causing a vicious cycle of large numbers of air traffic controllers retiring at the same time and subsequently large training classes to fill the imminent need for new employees. Roughly one-fifth of air traffic controllers are over the age of 55 and will need to be replaced in the coming years.

Occupations that require post-secondary education or long-term training are the most disconcerting with regards to workforce sustainability. They require the most amount of time to train and educate and can lead to potential skills gaps or strains on the market. The number of registered nurses, for example, is projected to increase by 19.4 percent, which translates to just over half a million jobs. However, there will be nearly an equal number of job openings that stem from replacement needs as older registered nurses retire. As such, there has been an increased effort in training registered nurses nationwide to fill both newly created jobs and those soon-to-be vacated jobs.

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article highlighting the shortage of truck drivers in the United States. A prolonged shortage of truck drivers would affect multiple industries and cause strains on the market. In the past a person could enter this career at 18, however requirements have changed and currently a person must be at least 21 years old to have an interstate commercial driver’s license. Further, some insurance companies are placing even higher age requirements to then insure a driver. The lack of interest in the career for those old enough to work as a truck driver and competition from employers in construction or energy businesses has contributed to fewer people entering the career, which causes a concern for those companies that don’t have a pool of applicants to replace the impending retirees.

Understanding and preparing for growth and replacement needs or a change in requirements, consumer preferences, or technological advances is crucial to having a sustainable workforce. Communities across the country are stepping up and implementing programs to best prepare their local workforce for careers in occupations where they will be able to find a job.

The growing need for a stronger local workforce and a national demand for technically trained employees led the community in Grand Island, Nebraska and the Grand Island Public Schools (GIPS) to come together to create a state-of-the-art career and technical training center – the Career Pathways Institute (CPI). Working with Central Community College, freshman and sophomore high school students can take introductory courses at CPI without charge and then apply their junior and senior years to earn college credits towards an associate’s degree. The programs offered range from welding to business and look promising to help fill the community’s need for trained workers by sparking the students’ interest in the career early on and providing the resources to get the training and education in it.

 

Career Pathways Institute Classroom
Image Source: Market Street Services

New York City partnered with IBM to create Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) with a “9-14 School model.” Students attend up to grade 14, and upon graduation obtain both a high school degree and an associate’s degree in applied science in either computer systems technology or electromechanical engineering technology, in addition to gaining experience. IBM, for its part, will benefit with having a qualified pool of talent for its future workforce.

The growing, newly created jobs and those that are needed for replacement of retirees are two important components when analyzing the sustainability of a workforce. Going beyond the growth rate and numbers and understanding your local communities’ demands and national trends is necessary to prepare your residents and future residents with the most opportunities for an improved quality of life. Whether it’s the welders and agribusiness professionals in Grand Island or the engineering technicians and software specialists in New York, increasing the wealth of your community by identifying problems early, giving residents the tools to succeed, and getting them qualified for the future supply of employment opportunities is what makes the job for those of us working in economic and community development so rewarding.

Housing First, Saving Taxpayer Money Second

By Katie Bass, Project Associate.

There has always been a debate regarding how to best solve homelessness and it’s an issue for which I care deeply. Recently, there was a police shooting in my hometown, Albuquerque, of a homeless man, James Boyd, 38. It was a tragedy and one that in my opinion could, and should, have been avoided for many reasons. The shooting is currently being investigated. The man had a long history of mental health issues and had been approached by officers for illegally camping in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. This tragedy, and those like it, are preventable.

There are several different methods communities take in addressing their homeless population. Some cities have taken the approach of providing the homeless with one-way tickets home in an effort to reduce the financial burden from providing food, shelter, and medical treatment. This method is somewhat controversial, as some of these programs ensure that the homeless person is being sent home to family that has accepted to take them in, while others have been accused of merely shipping the burden onto another city. These tactics are designed to simply manage the issue and reduce costs, rather than solving the problem by providing a sustainable, cost-effective plan.

The “Housing first” approach is one such method. 100,000 Homes Campaign is a national movement to use the housing first model to find permanent homes for 100,000 at-risk individuals by July 2014. There are over 200 communities nationwide participating in the effort and together they have housed more than 90,000 of America’s most vulnerable individuals, including over 25,000 Veterans. The communities are spread across the nation and include Portland, OR; Indianapolis, IN; Nashville, TN (recently profiled on 60 Minutes); Atlanta, GA and Tulsa, OK. The housing first method was designed for individuals and families that are chronically homeless and that have mental illness or substance abuse problems, and it provides them with a stable life that is supported by social services.

The problem of homelessness impacts communities of every size, it is also an expensive one. The costs associated with it include: incarcerations, emergency room visits, medical treatments, emergency shelters, food, and other social assistance. The housing first method saves taxpayers’ money and is a more efficient use of vital community investment dollars, regardless of your personal feelings towards homelessness. One study on Los Angeles estimated that the public cost for a chronically homeless person was $34,764 a year, but when those individuals were put in supportive housing, public costs dropped by 79 percent. Similarly, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article which concluded that more than $4.0 million was saved after one year of housing 95 chronically homeless individuals in Seattle. Philip Mangano, the former head of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, emphasized the issue with one simple statement: "We learned that you could either sustain people in homelessness for $35,000 to $150,000 a year, or you could literally end their homelessness for $13,000 to $25,000 a year." The cost-effectiveness of the program is what has been the main driver for getting public and political support.

Tulsa’s nationally recognized program is an example of the success a community can have. Together with Building Tulsa, Building Lives and other partners, The Mental Health Association in Tulsa implemented a debt-free housing model. They began by launching a capital campaign, raising funds through HUD grants, private capital, and income from Section 8 and other subsidies. They were able to use the money raised, along with federal funds, to purchase and create affordable housing in the Tulsa area. What began with 12 housing units has grown dramatically, and today they own and manage 833 housing units and 25 apartment complexes. Part of the program’s success is due to their implementation of a “mixed income, mixed population” model where 50 percent of units are dedicated to housing the chronically homeless or formally homeless and the other 50 percent to tenants at market prices. Because they own the properties debt-free, rental income supports operating costs. This model is successful. In 2012, 91 percent of those housed that had previously been homeless had not returned to homelessness.

In the face of such tragedies like the shooting of James Boyd, it’s inspiring to hear about communities, such as Tulsa, coming together to find long-term, sustainable solutions for such an important issue. Homelessness affects everyone in the community, and the housing first model has been shown to be cost-effective and to reduce panhandling, alcohol and drug abuse, and the use of emergency services. As economic development professionals, so much of what we do is tied to raising standards of living for every community member. By getting people off the streets and into safe, stable housing in a supportive environment, they can increase their level of self-sufficiency, break the cycle of homelessness, and transition back into being more productive members of society. Rather than simply managing the problem of homelessness, communities can end it, reduce costs, and increase the quality of life for everyone in the community.