Inside Homewood’s Economic Development: 1950s - 1990s Pt. 1

Different Interests and Different Visions

Photo Credit: Maranie Rae Photography

As residents of Homewood Brushton plan for the community’s future development, they can learn a lot from previous initiatives. Between the mid-1950s and the mid-1990s Homewood Brushton underwent a series of development efforts. Sometimes these efforts were complementary to each other, other times they were at odds. A different set of assumptions and values informed each development effort. Each effort also reflected changes in local and federal policy. On top of that, the differences reflected the diversity within the African-American population of the community; not all African American stakeholders in Homewood had the same interests.

From 1986 through 1988 I had an insider’s seat in the development process in Homewood; I was working at that time as the associate director of Homewood Brushton Revitalization and Development Corporation (HBRDC). I continued to follow Homewood’s development, through its ups and downs, in my capacity as a board member and later as a consultant for the Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development (PPND). As a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work, I continued to be involved in Homewood’s economic development. I have donated a collection of material from this period to the University Library System (ULS) of the University of Pittsburgh. The collection is titled "Homewood Brushton Revitalization and Development Corporation Records."

When I became the associate director of HBRDC in 1986, there were three other community-based organizations. Each group saw itself as having an interest in community development. They were The Homewood Brushton Community Improvement Association (HBCIA), which Ruby Hord ran, Operation Better Block (OBB), run by Carrie Washington, and the Homewood Brushton Chamber of Commerce, led by a tavern owner by the name of Vivian Lane. The executive director of HBRDC was Mulugetta Birru, who went on to become the head of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of the City of Pittsburgh.

The approach that each of these organizations took to community improvement reflected their history and their key stakeholders. HBCIA was the oldest of the four groups. It had been around since the 1950s and was part of the conservative “community improvement” movement that was characteristic of that era. Property owners founded HBCIA in reaction to the relocation of former Hill District residents into Homewood Brushton, following the demolition of the lower Hill during Pittsburgh’s “Renaissance One” program. By the late 1960s, HBCIA reflected the anxieties of older, black middle-class Homewood residents who were afraid that the arrival of younger, working class blacks would lead to increased racial segregation and deterioration of the overall community.