Inside Homewood’s Economic Development: 1950s - 1990s pt. 3

A New Era of Community Activism

Image Credit: Paul Russell Photography

By the late 1960s, the population of Homewood had changed; the neighborhood had become overwhelmingly black and working class. The younger generation of Homewood residents had little patience for the “bourgeois” concerns of HBCIA; they wanted to form a new community organization. HBCIA’s focus seemed out of touch with the needs of residents who believed their most immediate concern was for community mobilization and political empowerment. Young people also thought it was important to be in a position to take advantage of federal funds which were now available to address urban poverty. HBCIA could not exploit these changes.

In the activist spirit of the late 1960s and early 70s, younger residents formed Operation Better Block (OBB). A coalition of Homewood organizations called “Forever Action Together” initially ran the agency. OBB emphasized a strategy of empowerment through block-by-block mobilization and coalition-building across Homewood’s institutions, human services, and community-based organizations. HBCIA saw OBB as an impatient young upstart that was moving in on their territory.

From the 1970s through the early 1980s Homewood continued to deteriorate. The Fair Housing Act enabled middle-class black families to challenge discriminatory housing policies in nearby white middle-class neighborhoods such as North Point Breeze and Penn Hills. Many of Homewood’s businesses closed due to the rising crime rate and the drop in potential customers in the immediate area. In addition to all of this, federal funds dwindled under a series of fiscally conservative Republican and Democratic administrations.

The remainder of Homewood’s businesses could not compete with newer and flashier malls that were opening in nearby suburbs. Two developments, in particular, put pressure on small businesses in Homewood: the Monroeville Mall in 1969 and the Waterworks Mall, near the Allegheny River, in 1982. The development of the Shakespeare Street Giant Eagle in nearby Shadyside, as a huge multi-service grocery store, put competitive pressure on plans to revive smaller neighborhood stores in Homewood.

OBB, which once had leverage through its ability to mobilize grassroots voters and through its political connections, no longer fit the anti-poverty strategies of the 1980s. While the city continued to access federal block grants for blighted areas, community-based organizations were being pressured to come up with sustainable plans for economic development. These strategies had to include plans for business district revitalization, market-rate and subsidized housing and the ability to attract funding from local and national private foundations. With OBB’s focus on mobilization for political empowerment, many of Homewood’s strongest black-owned businesses did not believe that the organization was up to the task. In 1983 these owners pulled together to form a new entity called Homewood Brushton Revitalization and Development Corporation (HBRDC).