Community gardeners springing into action

By Marc Lucarelli, Tiffany Monde and Kori Sciandra
BengalNews Reporters

Now that spring is here, West Side residents will begin to see more volunteers and organizations pushing to beautify with the implementation of community gardens.

“People want to do things. It’s empowering, we just give them the tools to start,” said Susannah Barton, director of Grassroots of Buffalo.

The push to beautify the West Side is coming from within the community: residents are taking pride in how their neighborhood looks and are taking action to create and achieve the change they want.

Grassroots of Buffalo is affiliated with Buffalo Growing, an umbrella organization that encompasses community gardening organizations including Buffalo Reuse, Urban Roots, The Massachusetts Avenue Project, the Community Action Organization and the New York Sustainable Agricultural Working Group.

Dan Ash, a member of Buffalo Growing routinely participates in the distribution of seeds on both the West and East Sides.

“More and more we will try and have workshops to help fulfill the needs of the community,” Ash said.

These workshops are intended to teach and assist residents who want to enrich their community by planting either a community or backyard garden.

The refugee population on the West Side is growing rapidly, which is increasing the demand for gardens, farms and fresh food. Barton said that many of these immigrants coming into the West Side had farms back home, they lived off the land, and so the need for organizations like these is growing.

Urban Roots, a consumer cooperative with more than 500 members, is giving the city a place to shop for hard-to-find plants and gardening materials. The cooperative is working with members of the community by running workshops and offering advice to anyone with gardening needs.

“We want to change the look of the community. You look around and you see people really working on their homes, “ said Patti Jablonski-Dopkin, general manager of Urban Roots. “They might not have a lot of money but they’re keeping it clean, planting. They’re putting a few pots of flowers on their porches.”

Funding for community and backyard gardening is provided to Grassroots of Buffalo, a non-profit organization, primarily through grants, donations and financial contributions by local foundations such as, the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.

Barton referred to the open grant period as a way to "tell your story." When a member of the community wants to request funding to plant a garden they submit a grant application explaining their new project, or program they want to do for the year. Other factors are how many seeds needed for the project, or a new marketing campaign and why they deserve this and how much it’s going to cost.

Grants that are approved by the state are reviewed annually. After review the state then decides whether to completely or partially approve the grant or deny the request.

 Support from Niagara District Councilmember David Rivera, allows for a fair amount of funding.



"He sees the positive impact on beautifying the community. It gets people talking, engaging and working on projects together," Barton said.

Housing service lifeline for homeowners

By Jeff Buchman and Mario Burks
BengalNews Reporters

After about six months, Jolene Baller finally completed the home buying process that the West Side Neighborhood Housing Services set up for her.

The former radio DJ’s experiences with the Neighborhood Housing Service included undergoing full cycle lending, home buyer education classes, as well as foreclosure counseling.


Jolene Baller speaks about Neighborhood Housing's programs:


For Baller, the organization pushed her into a direction that was easy enough for her avoid the negative aspects of home purchasing and to stay focused on finalizing the deed to her new home on 17th Street.

“So many people get caught up in predatory lending. For any questions I had, I was lucky to have someone guide me through,” Baller said.

Baller initially got involved with West Side Neighborhood Housing Services when a friend recommended that the organization could aid in her home ownership process. She is one of an estimated 50 to 75 people helped yearly by Neighborhood Housing Services.

“My rent is lower than any rent I’d paid for 15 years before buying this house,” said Baller of the house they helped her obtain.

According to Baller, $50 million was given to New York State to assist people who were looking for grants to buy a house. That grant money was divided amongst several organizations including West Side Neighborhood Housing Services, and from there re-distributed to perspective first-time homeowners.

West Side Neighborhood Housing Services has been located on Connecticut Street and have been helping individuals like Baller in the home-buying process for the past 30 years extending its operations specifically to anywhere west of Main Street. As a non-for-profit organization, Neighborhood Housing Services is able to help people all over the West Side by supplying grants funded by Neighbor Works America through Congress.

Linda Chiarenza is executive director at West Side Neighborhood Housing Services. One of Chiarenza’s many responsibilities is writing grants for homes that need adaptations done accommodate its owners and to help coordinate rehabilitation to existing buildings. Baller worked with Chiarenza and received grants to close the deal on her 17th Street home. But for Chiarenza, working for organization is more than just a job, she does it because she said she “believes in the potential” of the West Side.

“In the past year we’ve done about 100 to 125 full home rehabilitations. We’ve also completed many partial rehabs including porches, or even fixing a chimney,” said Chiarenza.

Chiarenza also touched on how the organization has made efforts to cater to their clientele above and beyond cultural boundaries. A few patrons of the organizations were of the Muslim faith and a mandated rule in the religion states that followers are not allowed to pay interest. Chiarenza has looked into finding a loan that could cater to working around this rule ensuring potential future Muslim clientele can benefit in the same way.

For individuals like Baller, Neighborhood Housing Services was more than just a catalyst in obtaining a house; it was a gateway to understanding home ownership. Baller is quite satisfied with her current home and the knowledge she has retained through the organization’s homebuyer education classes. Baller elaborates on what she feels is important when individuals are considering the home buying process.

“My mortgage is lower than any rent I’d paid for 15 years before buying this house. I feel what changes a neighborhood is having people who have an invested interest in their homes, their streets, their neighborhoods,” Baller said