President and CEO of the corporation, Sheena Wright, sat down with The Epoch Times to share her insights along with her passion of working with the people of Harlem throughout the years.
Harlem's History
The ADC was established just over 20 years ago, but its roots into the community reach back more than 200 years, with the founding of the Abyssinian Church in the depths of slavery.
The 202-year-old church, which still stands as a landmarked building, was founded by a group of Ethiopian merchants in response to discriminatory practices against people of color. Its social justice mandate continued as the community met challenges over the decades.
During the 1920s and 30s, a large population moved to Harlem. “That was the epicenter of great migration when black people from all over the country, [from] all over the world, came to Harlem,” Wright said. It was the Harlem renaissance, with flourishing businesses making the community an international Black cultural and economic capital.
By the time of the Great Depression however, with the population having grown significantly, the community was hard hit. Over the next few decades, the community would continue to struggle. Disinvestment in the cities to create suburban communities in the 1940s and 50s presented another challenge as well as the national policy of red-lining around communities of people of color, which halted loans—decreasing resident’s ability to buy homes and businesses.
“In the 70s, you had the fiscal crisis where New York was on the brink of bankruptcy,” Wright said. “In the 80s you had AIDS as this new disease that was really devastating to our communities—crack as a new epidemic on top of what had come before, which was heroin. By the time the Development Corporation formed, it was a very challenged community.”
Wright describes the economic opportunities in Harlem at that time as “depressed.” She said 60 percent of the housing in the community was owned by the city because landlords had completely walked away, saying it wasn’t worth anything. “That’s where our work begins in the community,” she said.
Looking for Opportunities
By 1989, the year the ADC was formed, there was “nothing in central Harlem. No commercial development and no major retailers present in the community,” she said, noting that the landscape was comprised of vacant and abandoned buildings in disrepair, and rampant crime.
Despite the disheartening situation, Wright said the corporation saw its strengths.
“We said: ‘In this devastation and challenge and all these terrible things, there are some good things and let’s figure out what those are. Let’s build on those and create the neighborhood that we want for ourselves, for our children, that we expect,’” she said.
In 1989, a group of parents, business leaders, and parishioners from the church came up with a mission statement highlighting a series of elements to get the community back on track.
The first mission was to create quality housing for people of diverse incomes. “It doesn’t say ‘affordable,’ it says ‘quality,’” says Wright. “You need a mix of income in order to create successful, sustainable communities. You can’t have 100 percent low-income communities and expect them to be successful.”
To date, ADC has between 1,300 to 1,400 housing units and has created home ownership opportunities, along with other community development corporations in Harlem.
