Employee Spotlight: The Demo Diva and the Operation Home Program

United Housing employee Cherry Brooks, the self-proclaimed “Demo Diva,” has been sorting through houses by the fistful to find ways to alleviate blight in Memphis neighborhoods. Using the National Community Stabilization Trust (NCST) program called The ReClaim Project, distressed properties are donated to nonprofits that are willing and able to take some action on getting the homes either occupied or taken down.

Cherry Brooks, Demo Diva and Housing Support at United Housing

NCST is a nonprofit focused on accelerating neighborhood revitalization across the United States by collaborating with local community development corporations and national stakeholders. ReClaim focuses in markets with low-value, non-performing assets. Memphis is one of these left behind markets and continues to get hit by the housing crisis and economic recession. Property values are not increasing making it difficult for neighborhoods to bounce back.

“So many of these homes have to be knocked down, they are in such bad shape,” Brooks said sifting through piles of photos of homes with no doors, rotten structures, falling roofs, and water damage beyond repair. A vacant lot donated to the next door neighbors—often schools, churches, or homeowners—will help to maintain the lots and is one strategy for some of the homes.   “I drive around these neighborhoods, and look around. Find out if a school or church or store would want to maintain the lot, put in a garden or park. If I’m in Frayser I’ll recommend Frayser CDC for the property, especially if it can be saved and renovated,” Brooks says.

Not all of the homes need to be torn down. Some homes can be saved and repaired. “I just showed you the good ones,” Brooks said. The “good ones” can be donated to the neighborhood’s nonprofit community development corporation to be rehabbed and rented or sold to an individual or family. Brooks adds, “But most of them are just not worth the expense.”

Those rare property gems that are salvageable are ripe to become homes for veterans – the population NCST is focusing on getting housed. The donated properties can be “sold at a discount to qualified veterans or service members or made available as mortgage-free homeownership opportunities for disabled or very low-income veterans.”

United Housing is currently developing a new program called Operation Home in partnership with veteran organizations in Memphis like Catholic Charities' St. Sebastian Veteran Services  program, where they transition homeless veterans into stable housing. Operation Home has helped five veterans so far. The goal of Operation Home is to help 25 more veterans and their families become housed using NCST’s donated properties and ReClaim project. Properties that can be saved and renovated using energy-efficient, universal design, can provide accessibility standards for individuals in a wheelchair. Our goal is to supplement treatment plans from partner veteran organizations by providing a very crucial missing piece in the housing options and financial education of veterans in Memphis.

"I have 45 properties right now I am requesting through NCST," Brooks adds, "let's hope we can get some of these back in shape."

Renewable Energy in Memphis

Solar panels at Wolf River Bluffs.

Local solar panel enthusiast, Fergus Nolan, has written a short piece on Facebook on United Housing's Wolf River Bluffs. 

If you roll northwards on McLean, you dead-end at James St in Frayser. Clustered around the intersection, there's an interesting project by United Housing, a non-profit which works with low-income housing. These houses are very cool, built to pretty good standards of insulation, with economical on-demand water heaters, and each has a set of eight solar panels on the garage roof.

The panels were made in Memphis by Sharp America, who have since stopped making solar panels in Memphis. The economics of the panels are attractive. The eight panels probably have a rating of just under 2000 watts, which means that, with an average of 6 hours of productive daylight, you'd expect to get something approaching 12 KWH (12 units on your utility bill) per day. This is worth about $1.20 off your bill per day, maybe an average of 35 bucks or so, and this is higher in the summer months when the AC is on. 

There are still some tax incentives, in the shape of a credit, for installations like this, and you may qualify for some installation grants also. If you get a TVA/MLGW grid tie, you might be able to sell the energy to the utility for a higher price.

To build an installation like this yourself, you'd need approximately $2000 worth of panels, a solar controller in the $500 to $800 range and an inverter, to convert the 24V DC to alternating current, like you get off the mains. A 2000 watt inverter might start around $400 to 500. Then there is a mess or wiring, connectors and mounts, and you will need to hire an electrician if you want to hook it up to the grid, or contact the utility and jump through their hoops.

A grid this size won't power your home, but every watt you generate is a pile of coal they don't get to buy from Duke and burn at the Allen Fossil Plant, and thirty-something bucks per month is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Payback looks to be in the order of 10 years and the panels come with a 25 year guarantee. There are a few little perks, such as the 'parasol effect' where the panels block 20% or so of the sun's heat. Mostly, doing a starter installation like this puts you in a good place to add more. Prices for panels have been in a historical decline, and fossil fuel will inevitably go up, so, at some point, you'd expect to be able to build up your home solar farm at incrementally lower costs. And, if you carefully research all the available grants and tax incentives, you may be able to trim these costs significantly.

The van in the pics is my solar-powered freezer truck, also with 1 KW of Memphis-built solar panels. This is how I have avoided tangling with bureaucracy as it is an off-grid installation. For anyone who has mobile power needs, the fact that automotive energy is much more expensive than grid power, and much of the available devices are awfully fuel-inefficient, gives a much better ROI calculation. Payback on the solar part of the truck conversion was less than a year. Opportunities for renewable energy are all around us. There is plenty of low-hanging fruit for homeowners and business folk who need to make our energy investments go to the bottom line.

United Housing has shown the way. These are neat and efficient houses that look very livable, probably much better than these leaky old Midtown houses. BTW is you know any low-income folks, it looks like some of the houses are still for sale.

Mr. Nolan is a member of local Facebook Advocacy group, Midtown Sustainability Alliance. He operates a small business based here in Memphis.

Learn more about Wolf River Bluffs on our website.

TEDxMemphis: What's Next?

By Amy Schaftlein, Director of Development + Communications

There was a buzz of anticipation in the morning air as audience members arrived at the sold-out conference that was the first of its kind in Memphis. As people walked in, they encountered a wall of cheerfully hued red sticky notes clustered around the question, “What’s Next for you?” Participants busied themselves by putting their ideas up on the board; the ideas ranged from earnest to zany, including “M.D.,” “Graduate,” “Artist” and even “Pizza.” On Saturday, August 29, passionate individuals from all over Memphis (including one from UHI), the Mid-South and beyond came together to explore fresh ideas that may have potential to shape Memphis and the world at the TEDxMemphis event at the University of Memphis’ Rose Theatre. 

The theme for this event? What’s Next for Memphis. But what is next for Memphis? Seventeen speakers from the arts, health, community development and business sectors presented topics on issues that are important to our city. Music, sports, and dance intersected with civic issues, city obstacles and education. Dr. Sarah Petschonek with Volunteer Odyssey spoke of volunteerism rooted in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. She posited one way you can reach self-actualization may be through finding your passion in volunteerism in a Memphis nonprofit organization, maybe even finding a job doing what you love at the same time! Ephie Balllard-Johnson with Neighborhood Christian Centers is working in early childhood development with Operation Smart Child in partnership with the Urban Child institute to ensure babies start off on the right foot before entering kindergarten. She has assisted more than 50,000 neighbors in need annually. Marco Pave spoke about how arts and following his dream kept him alive in harsh North Memphis streets. Pave advocates for more investment in the arts because it’s a good investment – Memphis art nonprofits leverage the city’s investment 10 times over. Art keeps kids motivated in school, helps them to think critically and often saves them from a life of crime in ways it saved Pave himself. 

What were my favorite talks, you might ask? The talks I enjoyed most were about health care as well as the new Crosstown development in North midtown. 

Dr. Scott Morris spoke eloquently on the subject of holistic health. Our bodies are not machines, and the problem is partially our obsession with technology he says. Doctors must get to know the patients’ “whole health” to answer the question “why am I sick?” - the one question many doctors cannot answer. Why? The patients’ whole health can tell you who they are, where they are from, where they live, what they eat, and who they love. These questions bear some semblance to why they may have become sick – because many of the people that come to see Dr. Morris at the Church Health Center cannot be diagnosed with anything. Stress and anxiety are often from a broken heart – and it is hard to cure and find treatment for a broken heart, a broken neighborhood, or a broken spirit with an Rx pen. The Church Health Center averages 30,000 patient visits per year – the majority low income and uninsured. Dr. Morris and the Church Health Center are a major part of the Crosstown Concourse vision to create an urban village anchored in the arts, education and healthcare. 

 

Which brings me to my next favorite talk - Dr. Todd Richardson, the co-leader of the Crosstown Concourse and co-founder of Crosstown Arts. He compared the transformation of the 1.5 million square foot Sears Crosstown building with the dome of the Florence Cathedral. The Italian Renaissance, like all renaissances, was not about looking at the future but about resurrecting the past, looking within, and transforming and reusing the spaces that have been abandoned or forgotten. 

Finally, the New Ballet Ensemble and School’s founder and CEO Katie Smythe is working to bring ballet to all Memphis and Mid-South children. She aligns with educators and human service organizations to reach children on the margins. She listens to their thoughts and ideas about dance, often rooted in family and history. This creates a unique mix of ballet, Memphis jookin, breakdancing and so much more to the art form of ballet – making it rooted in place and time. However, Smythe knows that access does not equal equity. She understands that the kids have to go home at night to a situation that may not always help the child lead a healthy lifestyle. Smythe began adult education programs, especially in financial literacy, which may help some parents aid their children and themselves in creating a better environment for everyone.

From the United Housing perspective, financial literacy and healthy housing is essential to all of the arts, education and healthcare aspects of the work our fellow innovators are doing. Like access to a home, access to the arts does not always equal equity, as the subprime fallout has showed. Creating tools to empower our neighbors and to educate one another in cultural competency will allow for equity to grow in our neighborhoods. Financial literacy will create a much more sustainable homeowner and neighbor by decreasing foreclosure 30 percent.

Health and housing have never been talked about more than right now. Healthy homes are at the crux of a positive whole health experience. If you cannot keep your lights on or your roof from leaking or mold from getting into your walls and cabinets, then health outcomes cannot be enhanced no matter how many prescriptions you fill. Healthy housing must be a component in the Crosstown Concourse’s urban village. How will this village permeate the surrounding, existing neighborhoods? What jobs, housing and financial literacy resources will be available in the urban village? 

What is Next Memphis? With so many innovative speakers and so much work to do in our community, connecting and building on one another’s assets should make sure that whatever we are doing now can inform and positively impact what comes next.

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks. TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages.

TEDx events are independently run and help share ideas in communities around the world. TEDx events are local and self-organized. They bring people together from that particular city, town or community to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks from live speakers and video combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event.