Community Corner
Home Repair Resource Center Founded to Foster Integration
The Cleveland Heights-based agency started as a small group formed by the Forest Hill Church to educate community members about integration
This is the about the Home Repair Resource Center in Cleveland Heights. Look for the third article Thursday.
It was the late 1960s. Cleveland Heights was beginning to integrate, much to the chagrin of the old guard, and people in the community were trying to fight back against the rampant racism they were seeing.
That was the setting for what would become the Home Repair Resource Center, said agency founder Diana Woodbridge.
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“Prophets of doom were spewing all the myths of integration, that if black people move in, your values are going to go down, your houses are going to go to pot, that sort of thing,” she said.
Anti-integrationists brought groups of black children to neighborhoods in Cleveland Heights and told them to knock on doors to "frighten" homeowners, she said. A block club was created to discourage black families from moving in.
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A small group of members from the held educational workshops to battle these divisive tactics, including one on fair housing law and another on community change. It was clear early on that more needed to be done.
“I had a neighbor on my street, he had built his house originally, and he said, ‘You know, I don’t care who moves in next door to me as long as the housing stock is maintained. I’m here, and I’m here to stay,’” Woodbridge said. “Clearly housing was key.”
The thought was that if a group could be created to help maintain the housing stock, a fully integrated community might not be so far out of reach for those who opposed it. Thus the HRRC, originally called the Forest Hill Church Housing Corporation, was born in 1971.
Since its inception, more than $14 million in home repairs have been done as a result of HRRC programs, including the guaranteeing of bank loans for low- and moderate-income residents, said HRRC Director Kathryn Lad.
The organization has guaranteed 931 loans for a total of more than $4.7 million over the years. Of these, only 48 went into default and eight were paid in full, giving them a loss of 1.6 percent, much lower than the average bank loan, Lad said.
“And these are loans that banks wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole,” she said.