Overview
Established at the end of 2008, the Jefferson Parish Community Foundation has focused its initial efforts and resources on housing and quality of life issues. In the wake of several reports commissioned by the parish’s economic development agency (JEDCO) that highlighted Jefferson’s challenges in remaining a community of choice within our region, the Foundation has reacted by devising specific, immediately implementable plans to strengthen neighborhoods at risk on both the East and West Banks of the Mississippi River.
Although still Louisiana’s most populous parish, Jefferson has begun to show many of the strains confronted by traditional American “inner-ring” suburban communities. Public and private infrastructure is fraying, the community is being diversified at a much more rapid rate than it is being integrated, public schools are underperforming and being abandoned to the poor, and far too many families with sufficient economic resources are choosing to relocate to the more “pristine” pastures north of Lake Pontchartrain.
Coaxing the above-mentioned exodus is a rapidly aging housing stock in critical neighborhoods that has not been updated in decades. Add to this the haphazard renovation patterns that have taken place since Hurricane Katrina made landfall and one easily finds the cause of decline in most distressed neighborhoods. With assistance from community development expert David Boehlke, the Foundation has been working to strengthen resident-led organizations and to stabilize areas in varying states of decline through such strategies as employer-assisted housing initiatives, façade improvement programs and direct grants to community groups wishing to beautify targeted neighborhoods. Most importantly, we are working to match available housing stock with financially stable first-time homeowners whose presence can solidify the market in those areas most in need of it.
