SwedishAmerican Hospital - Neighborhood Revitalization

Overview

In 2001, the hospital’s Foundation initiated a campaign to transform the area immediately surrounding the hospital from a crime-ridden, blighted, mostly rental-occupied area to a stable, respectable, revitalized, owner-occupied neighborhood. In partnership with the City of Rockford, Habitat for Humanity, and other public and community organizations, they have significantly invigorated the neighborhood.

Impact

SwedishAmerican Foundation has committed more than $4.1 million in donor-provided funds to purchase and remove substandard or boarded-up housing; coordinate the construction or rehabbing of homes for sale to Habitat for Humanity families and SwedishAmerican employees; renovated an apartment complex; and provided matching grants to homeowners for external repairs and remodeling. During this program, the neighborhood surrounding SwedishAmerican Hospital has gone from 35 percent owner-occupied to 51 percent owner-occupied housing, and has seen a 12 percent drop in major crime.

Challenges/success factors

The Foundation has purchased and rehabbed 17 homes for resale to SwedishAmerican employees and/or public service employees. In partnership with Habitat for Humanity, they cleared land and sponsored the construction of single-family, owner-occupied homes; they purchased and provided land for the City of Rockford to construct three owner-occupied homes; constructed more than 15 garages for homeowners; and made more than 60 matching grants to homeowners for exterior repairs and remodeling. The Foundation also constructed two neighborhood parks and a playground. These efforts have also prompted commercial developments in the area.

Also, in collaboration with the Construction Class of Rockford East High School and the construction students of De la Gardie High School in Lidköping, Sweden, the hospital’s Foundation has completed the construction and sale of two new market-rate construction homes to SwedishAmerican employees, with a third energy-efficient home to be completed in 2013.

Future direction/sustainability

As a result of the success of these efforts, in 2008, the City of Rockford approved a $200,000 grant to the Foundation to rehabilitate and resell 15 additional houses within a specified section of the hospital’s identified area of influence. As the neighborhood stability grows, the boundaries of the project will, in all likelihood, expand as well. Due to the success of the current project, two additional TIF districts have been created in the immediate area to improve those areas.

Advice to others

Three elements are necessary for the success of this type of program:

• Sufficient, donor-provided funds – Hospital operating funds should not be used for a program of this type. The potential for a public relations backlash is obvious.
• Program flexibility – A “five-year plan” is very difficult to create for this type of program. You have to be willing to take advantage of the next opportunity, change directions when necessary, and/or adjust “on the fly” in neighborhood revitalization.
• Single-point accountability – Don’t use a committee to run this program. This needs to be one or two people, making decisions and implementing those decisions.

Contact: John Mecklenburg, CFRE
Executive Vice President & Chief Executive Officer
SwedishAmerican Foundation
Telephone: 815-961-2496
E-mail: John@samfnet.com