How Sustainability Can Uplift a Neighborhood

Cincinnati’s South Cumminsville is a largely low-income African American neighborhood along the once polluted Mill Creek. Seventy-percent of people live within a block of property with possible contamination and asthma rates among children are high. A nonprofit organization is helping  green it up through retrofits and near net-zero homes. Residents are hopeful and city leaders hope it can be replicated in other communities.

Interview guests: Executive Director of WIN Sister Barbara Busch, President of the South Cumminsville Community Council Derrik Feagin, VP Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio Ken Wilson and Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan Michele Lemon-Kearney.

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Ann Thompson:

As the nonprofit Working in Neighborhoods or WIN describes it. Cincinnati’s South Cumminsville neighborhood had a multitude of issues. Storefronts stood empty, houses were abandoned, and over time, crime started to creep in.

Rebecca Simmons:

My house has been shot at a couple of times and pierced, broke my window.

Ann Thompson:

South Cumminsville residents saw other neighborhoods thriving and wanted the same opportunities. One study showed they were more likely to die sooner than people in other parts of Cincinnati. They asked WIN to help them live longer and get out of poverty.

Vice Mayor Jan Michele Lemon-Kearney:

The people in the community have never given up and they are always moving forward.

Ann Thompson:

The idea… sustainability. Keep existing senior residents in their homes by retrofitting dozens of houses with clean green materials, which would also lower their energy bills and build or rehab 25 solar powered income restricted homes for new residents.

Sister Barbara Busch:

People always ask me the question, well, why are you putting 'em here? You could put 'em someplace else and make money. Well, there's truth to that, but the reality is our neighbors deserve the same opportunities as every other community

Ann Thompson:

Come along as Brick by Brick spends time in South Cumminsville, learning about the project and how it can be replicated in other communities.

Derrik Feagin:

I'm just thankful that I have an organization that can help me and my community with the housing issue.

Ann Thompson:

Let's get into it. This is Brick by Brick: Solutions for a Thriving Community.

Ame Clase:

Brick by Brick is made possible thanks to leading support from t e Debra and Robert Chavez and Greater Cincinnati Foundation. With additional major support from AES Ohio Foundation, Laurie Johnston; Susan Howarth Foundation, the George and Margaret McLane Foundation, Diane and Dave Moccia, The Robert and Jean Penny Endowment of The Dayton Foundation, the Robert and Adelle Schiff Family Foundation and more. Thank you.

Ann Thompson:

Hello and welcome to Brick by Brick, where we're highlighting solutions for a thriving community in southwest Ohio. I'm your host Ann Thompson. South Cumminsville is on Cincinnati's West Side surrounded by the neighborhoods of Northside, Camp Washington and Millvale. It's a predominantly low income African-American neighborhood along the once polluted Mill Creek. Seventy-percent of residents live within a block of property with possible contamination and asthma rates for children here are four times higher than normal. It's the kind of neighborhood often overlooked for sustainability projects, but not this time. We'll tell you about the retrofits and near Net Zero Village, but first we meet Derek Feagan, president of the South Cumminsville Community Council at one of the neighborhood's most popular Hangouts.

Worker at Gene's Dog House:

Mr. Gene’s Dog House.

Ann Thompson:

What is this place?

Derrik Feagin:

This place is iconic. It was much smaller when they originally built it, and we'd always come here and get ice cream or shakes. Chili dogs were fantastic and Mr. Gean has just been a staple to the community When all the other stores disappeared, he's the only one that stayed and then he does contribute a lot. He contributes very much to the neighborhood.

Ann Thompson:

You were starting to describe South Cumminsville and what you liked about it, but just for people who don't know, how would you describe the neighborhood?

Derrik Feagin:

People were friendly and we have one of the lowest crime rates in the city. South Cumminsville, I think is one of the safest communities in the city of Cincinnati. It's a good place to raise a family.

Ann Thompson:

And I know that you've left several times. Were there any concerns when you were here? So lots of good things about South Cumminsville. Is there anything that you noticed over time that you thought this could be improved?

Derrik Feagin:

Yes. Over the time I saw the houses start to deteriorate, I saw drug trafficking. I saw a lot of things. There were a number of murders over the years and since all this stuff has decreased and I contribute a lot to an organization called Working in Neighborhoods, when they help our community council a lot, they basically provide 50% of our staffing for our community council, they give us a place to meet and they give us all types of assistance. They've helped us create a coalition between South Cumminsville, North Fairmount and South Fairmount because in numbers you have for strength.

Ann Thompson:

What are your hopes and dreams for South Cumminsville down the road?

Derrik Feagin:

I just like to have South Cumminsville be a neighborhood where you can walk down the street, you can bicycle and you don't have to be afraid to just hang out with your friends and laugh and have fun. That's the kind of neighborhood I'd like it to be. Also, aesthetically beautiful green spaces, nicely kept homes. That's where I like South Cumminsville,

Ann Thompson:

The neighborhood is headed in that direction thanks to Working in Neighborhoods. Riding in a van, WIN’s Mary Metzmeier points out the window.

Mary Metzmeier:

So this beige house is one of our new builds. This brick house is one of our rehabs. The blue house is a rehab. This yellow one is one of ours. The beige brick one is one of our rehabs.

Ann Thompson:

WIN has rehabbed or built 70 homes here over the years, that's a third of the total single family homes in South Cumminsville.

Mary Metzmeier:

This red brick one is ours, the white one next to it is ours.

Ann Thompson:

Overseeing all of this is WIN’s Executive Director's Sister Barbara Busch. She sits down at a long conference room table in the organization's headquarters across the street from South Cumminsville’s first near net zero home, meaning a home where the energy bill is close to zero. So how did you come up with the idea for the Net Zero Village?

Sister Barbara Busch:

Well, it was kind of a combination. The community came to me because they said they had heard from the city that they were dying 17 years ahead of other folks on the east side and that they were in poverty now for over 40 years. And so the president of the council, a couple of the council people came and said, can you help us not die early and end up having a better place to live so that we're both not dying and we're not poor?

Ann Thompson:

I have to say that that was quite a tall order with the residents telling you that A, we want you to extend our life expectancy and B, we want you to increase our income.

Sister Barbara Busch:

Yeah, it is, but it's what people needed. And so the only way you can really do that for seniors and our legacy homeowners is really to try to cut their costs down. So that's how we got to the 25 units. If we can cut down their utility bill, then they have more money to use on other things. 

Ann Thompson:

Yeah, alright, so let's talk about the financing for this. Who are the main funders and then where did you get the land or I guess you're still getting it if you want to build 25 homes.

Sister Barbara Busch:

We have almost 25 lots that are on hold. At The Port, we were gathering lots and I was so happy when The Port started to do that because we transferred some of ours to them because they don't have to pay taxes and they don't. So all the kind of holding costs got cut, which is a big deal over time. The interesting thing for the retrofits is at the same time there was a Duke class benefit agreement, so we applied for that and we ended up with I think about $510,000 from that.

Ann Thompson:

So in terms of the Net Zero Village, is there an income restriction on who can buy them?

Sister Barbara Busch:

Yes. Our income restriction, because we got the ARPA money went to 80% of area media and then we still have two units that didn't get ARPA money, so they can go up to 120.

Ann Thompson:

So in three years you'll have,

Sister Barbara Busch:

Hopefully we'll have seven units,

Sister Barbara Busch:

And we're hoping to have close to 20 to 22 of our seniors retrofits. Now of course, it all depends on how much money we can raise and we can raise more money if there is available dollars nationally, since there's so many interesting things going on out there, we're hoping to be able to finish this project and start moving some of our work into the other neighborhoods that we work with.

Ann Thompson:

Are there concerns about gentrification? Some people might say like, oh, you're building these new homes, maybe you want to bring other people in. It's going to increase the cost. What about that?

Sister Barbara Busch:

Well, as I said to you, we help people to become homeowners. So we do have people who want to buy these houses that are in our home ownership trainings. We will put it out on the market, but we're hoping that that will allow us to be able to sell to folks who want to come and live here. And we always do put a term that you have to live here. We figure if you live here a while, you'll be happy with the neighborhood and you'll stay.

Ann Thompson:

Rebecca Simmons is happy to live in South Cumminsville. She's been in this same two-story house for 35 years and after a hospital stay and three month recovery at her daughter's, she's back because she wants to be. I'm glad you're feeling better now.

Rebecca Simmons:

Oh, I'm doing so much better. I'm doing so much better.

Ann Thompson:

Rebecca is one of 15 homeowners to get a retrofit. She looked into it after her air conditioning went out and her hot water heater was leaking.

Rebecca Simmons:

I was out in the yard working in the yard and one of the sisters came and asked me, we got a program going on, would you like to come and be in it? So I inquired. I was kind of leery about talking to people off the street, so I said, give me the application. I filled it out and I take it down to myself and showed up. It was legit. And so they came and did our windows. They had all the windows put in. Not only did I get a hot water heater, they put that in and then they came and said my furnace was outdated. So they replaced that and then I got an air condition and it was just such a delight. They redid downstairs in the basement, they put extra installation down there and then I got blocked windows down and that's what I always, I was trying to save to get blocked windows because to me those windows, you could just kick it with your foot and then they can get in. But I wanted blocked windows down there and I got that and I was so delighted and I was thanking the Lord for how he had blessed us throughout the years. My house is so sound that they have music over there every Sunday. You can't hear it.

Ann Thompson:

That's great. How did you know I was going to ask all those questions. I was going to ask about your utility bill and about how this program came to be and how you participated.

Rebecca Simmons:

My gas electric, the hottest part of this in the summer is like $140. And not only that, in the coldest part of the winter, it never went up. I never had to pay $200 for my gas electric

Ann Thompson:

Thanks to nearly a dozen retrofit funders. Homeowners like Rebecca don't have to pay anything to green up their place. Coming up on Brick by Brick… go inside South Cumminsville’s first near net zero home and hear why the Council on Aging says other communities should be doing this. Stay tuned When Brick by Brick Continues.

Ame Clase:

Brick by Brick is made possible thanks to the generous support of so many, including Murray and Agnes Seasongood, Good Government Foundation, Rosemary and Mark Schlachter, the Camden Foundation, Patti and Fred Heldman, DeeDee and Gary West, the Stephen H. Wilder Foundation, Judith & Thomas Thompson. A donation in memory of Frank and Margaret Lenhart and more. Thank you. We couldn't do this work without you.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Hey, it's Hernz Laguerre Jr., one of the team members behind Brick by Brick. Our new show is about solutions for a thriving community, but if you think about it, we all have a different perspective of what a thriving community should look like. That's why we need to hear from you. We want to know what a thriving community looks like to you. Maybe it's more housing, more parks or stores or even safer sidewalks. Whatever your vision, we hope you'll share with us. You can do that by heading to the Brick by Brick show page on cetconnect.org or thinktv.org. There you'll find an audience question button, just fill out the survey in. That's it. We look forward to sharing your hopes and dreams with the rest of our neighbors in future episodes. Thank you.

Ann Thompson:

Welcome back to Brick by Brick. WIN’s Executive Director Sister Barbara Bush says South Cumminsville has the largest percentage of black homeowners in Cincinnati and she wants to keep them there. Quite a few of the seniors are on fixed incomes and have trouble paying rising energy costs. That's why the retrofit part of this plan was so important. The Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio is taking notice. The nonprofit organization provides options for older adults to stay independent in their homes as long as possible. Vice President Ken Wilson.

Ken Wilson:

There's a lot of challenges with home ownership and then the affordability piece is a really big deal for older adults.

Ann Thompson:

Brick by Brick told Wilson about Rebecca Simmons wanting to return to South Cumminsville after recuperating at her daughter's house.

Ken Wilson:

That's a common story that we hear from a lot of our families and many of us experience this with our own families because we all go through this with our grandparents and our parents and eventually ourselves if we live long enough and are fortunate enough to live long enough. But yes, people want to be in their own home. They want to be where they're comfortable, where they're familiar and where they're surrounded by a familiar environment and with people who care about them.

Ann Thompson:

The problem is it's getting more expensive to live. So Wilson says it's important to figure out ways to cut costs for seniors.

Ken Wilson:

And a recent local issue that we're hearing more and more about is rising property taxes because of the rising value of homes. And for older adults who live in a home on a fixed income and the value of their house has gone up a lot, they're seeing their taxes go up and they're not able to afford to stay there any longer. So we've been talking to legislators and local groups about possible solutions around that, but affordable and accessible housing, there's a shortage of that. It's one of the top needs for older adults in our community and around the country. So the more options we have, the better. The more solutions we have, the better.

Ann Thompson:

A 2022 AARP survey of older adults found 77% want to remain in their homes for the long term, and that has been consistent for a decade. The Urban Institute reports the number of households headed by people age 65 and older is expected to grow from 34 million to 48 million in the next 20 years. So having housing choices is critical. And Sister Barbara Bush says, since we have a housing shortage already, we don't want it to decrease By having senior homes fall into disrepair. The retrofits are helping to prevent that. Part two of this plan is the net zero village restricted to 80 to 120% of area median income. In Hamilton County, that's about 81,000 to 124,000 for a family of four. We meet Paul Yankie, president of Green Building Consulting at South Cumminsville’s first near net zero house still under construction. You were approached by WIN and they were telling you about this neighborhood that they wanted to build.

Paul Yankie:

Crazy idea. Yeah,

Ann Thompson:

For sure. But obviously you were optimistic about this and tell me a little bit about the planning.

Paul Yankie:

We put all the potential parts of the building into an energy model and it spits out a predicted outcome of what that energy bill is going to for the house. And that was the telling tale, right? Because we would build one to code what building code might say to do. Then we did what working in neighborhoods normally did was already better than code.

Ann Thompson:

Alright. You said part of your testing involved seeing how much, let's say an energy bill would cost for this house. Sure. So how big a house is this and what did you find?

Paul Yankie:

So I think the total square footage of truly conditioned space is around 2000. But I think the usable space, I think it's around 1500 square feet, something like that. I can tell you right now that our energy models show that before solar even gets put up, this has about half the energy bill of a standard code built house and that's new construction. Compare that to your average house and it's literally going to be 70% less.

Ann Thompson:

Should we go inside? 

Paul Yankie:

Yeah, let's do it.

Ann Thompson:

So tell me, what are we looking at? We've come in on the first floor.

Paul Yankie:

If you normally were walk through a house at this stage, you would see two by fours that were up. You'll notice in here, except for a couple spots where they did it near the stairs or maybe a closet, you don't see any other framing though popping out from around the walls. And that's important because they did a very high quality practice called SIPS. It's called structural insulation panels and probably one of my favorite designs if people can do it, and this lend itself to it and they started from the design really early. I'll show you an example over here. It's basically an installation sandwich. So this is a cutout of one and what it's doing ridiculously simple. I love when technology is this easy. It's insulation surrounded by two pieces of OSB boards.

Ann Thompson:

When Paul says an insulation sandwich, he's not kidding. It looks like regular wood framing or in this case OSB. In a typical house, two by fours will always create gaps in the insulation. This new material is making that insulation seamless throughout the home's walls.

Paul Yankie:

When we run an infrared thermal camera over a house like this, you'll see what we call tiger stripes. It's where your standard house has all, every 16 inches, has a stud, and you can see that piece of wood is not insulation. That wood doesn't do anything for you. So every 16 inches you lose an inch and a half. So if you do the math over that, you're losing around 10% of that wall. This is a hundred percent insulated. This goes all the way through the wall. There are no tiger stripes.

Ann Thompson:

Should we go upstairs?

Paul Yankie:

I guess it works, especially in the summer right now.

Ann Thompson:

One thing I noticed is it's not that hot up here.

Paul Yankie:

Thank you. So a lot of times if the ventilation and everything's done right, you might see anywhere from zero to one or two degrees. The standard house has five to 10 degrees difference between floors, which become unbearable, right? We're not even close to being done. We still have holes, right? It is not done and you already can tell a difference.

Ann Thompson:

You've done a lot of work with WIN and specifically in this neighborhood, and I'm wondering how unusual is it for lower income neighborhoods to be focusing on sustainability? They certainly have the high energy bills.

Paul Yankie:

You do, thank goodness it's getting less unusual, right? So it's going to be becoming more usual. I will say, as far as what should be done, it's the place that I want to see it more. Quite frankly. It has the biggest benefit. So we all see our energy bills in summer and winter, and if there's a swing, which sometimes can be 25 to 50% swings, think about if you're on a lower income or even a fixed income. How do you handle that swing? Did you budget? Did you have money? That's not always the case, right?

Ann Thompson:

Win has the money for a seven of the 25 plan near net zero homes. The City of Cincinnati is the largest donor committing 420,000 Vice Mayor, Jan Michelle Lemon Kearney says, sister Barbara Bush will need additional money

Vice Mayor Jan Michele Lemon-Kearney:

And she'll come back for more. And I think the city will be on board with that because I mean, this is what we're looking for. Home ownership really, really helps families. Children do better in math and science. They're healthier when their families are stable. And being stable means you own your home and you stay in it. So that's very important. 

Ann Thompson:

Could this be replicated in other neighborhoods, do you think?

Vice Mayor Jan Michele Lemon-Kearney:

Absolutely. And it has to be replicated across the city. There's so many neighborhoods that are really thirsty for investment. The president of North Fairmount Community Council, Pam Adams is always calling. We want some single family homes here. We want more home ownership people all across the Avondale says the same thing. I mean people all across the city, Price Hill. So lots of neighborhoods have these opportunities, and so we have to look at how working in neighborhoods put this model together and let's replicate it.

Ann Thompson:

Certainly one of the limitations is the cost. Paul Yankie says it's up to three, four, or 5% of the cost of the house before solar. Angie's List says the average cost of building a green home is 340,000. WIN is spending 320,000 on each house and will sell them as affordable homes. And The Port donated the land for the first seven. Brick by brick will follow the progress in South Cumminsville and look to see if other communities are doing it and how well it's working. We want to hear from you as Brick By Brick develops more episodes. Go to our website, cetconnect.org and thinktv.org where you'll find a big green button to give feedback. That's where you'll also see related articles, a link to the podcast and Hernz and Emiko’s video stories as well as online extras. We'd love to hear from you. Coming up on the next episode of Brick by Brick, there's not just one idea to solve the housing crisis. The author of the Affordable City, Shane Phillips has 54 of them. The

Shane Phillips:

The book itself was sort of a brain dump for me in a way, and my goal with the book was really just to enumerate as many as I could that actually had some promise.

Ann Thompson:

Join us for another Solution Sidebar on the next Brick by Brick. That's our show. If you like what you hear, please rate and review our podcast. It helps make finding the pod a little easier and we hope you learn something. And if you did, please share it with your friends, your family, or even a neighbor for Hernz Laguerre Jr. And Emiko Moore, I'm Ann Thompson. We'll be back soon with more solutions. Take care.

Our show is produced, hosted an edited by me, Ann Thompson with reporting and story editing from Hernz Laguerre Jr. and Emiko Moore. Our Executive producer of Mark Lammers. Our show consultant is Gloria Skurski. Gabe Wimberly is our audio engineer and mixer. Zach Kramer runs the lights and cameras. Derrick Smith is our production specialist and Jason Garrison is our production manager. Kellie May heads up our marketing and promotions, along with Mike Shea and Bridgett Dillenburger. Elyssa Stefenson handles the website and Steve Wright is our designer. Bill Dean and Andres Kruza are the engineers for the show and our Chief Content Officer is Colin Scianamblo. Our music is from Universal Production Music. Brick by Brick: Solutions for a Thriving Community is a production of CET and ThinkTV, Southwest Ohio PBS member stations.