AMHA AWARDED A CHOICE NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING GRANT
The Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA) and the City of Akron, as co-applicant, have been awarded a $450,000 planning grant through HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods program. This grant will help local leaders develop a comprehensive, resident-led plan to revitalize and transform AMHA’s 239-unit Summit Lake Apartments development and the surrounding Summit Lake neighborhood.
“Akron’s Million Dollar Playground” – ask any long-time Akron resident about Summit Lake, and they will immediately recall the amusement park that once sat along the shore. When Summit Beach Park opened in 1917, thousands of people would come to ride on “The Whip” and other rollercoasters, or swim in the “Crystal Pool”. As the rubber industry declined, the Summit Lake neighborhood, located just south of downtown, experienced population loss and disinvestment. The lake was eventually deemed unsafe for swimming due to chemical runoff from nearby rubber factories that helped power the area’s economy.
Today, the neighborhood has a poverty rate of over 40%, and over a quarter of the housing units stand vacant.
Over the past fifteen years, however, positive change has begun. The City has invested in the neighborhood through the demolition of blighted buildings, rehabilitation of older homes, acquisition of vacant land and improved infrastructure in the area. In 2010, HUD and AMHA, in partnership with the Akron Public Schools, invested $5M in constructing the Reach Opportunity Center at Summit Lake; a neighborhood hub that supports educational, job readiness, and community led activities. Then in 2016, the Reimagining the Civic Commons, jointly funded by the JPB, Knight, Kresge and William Penn Foundations and convened by the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, began a community planning process at Summit Lake resulting in in the Summit Lake Vision Plan and implementation of several improvements and investments around the lakefront.
AMHA and the City will use the Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant funds along with money leveraged from key partners including the Knight Foundation, GAR Foundation, Huntington-Akron Foundation, Akron Civic Commons, and Summit County to build on this momentum and create a resident and community led vision for the Summit Lake Apartments and surrounding neighborhood. Robust community engagement efforts will involve resident representation and leadership on task forces and working groups, among other initiatives. The resulting plan will be a blueprint for future investments. Through the planning process, the community will explore how to redevelop Summit Lake Apartments, provide wanted and needed neighborhood improvements, and also focus on creating economic development and a support network that enables residents to access opportunities that are most important to them.
