Josh Imhof | features editor

Kirk Holbrook has heard stories of displacement in the Hill District his whole life.

His great-grandmother, who lived on Elm Street in the Lower Hill, was one of them.

Now, Elm Street doesn’t even exist.

“What can be reborn based off of that loss?” Holbrook said.

These experiences have shaped Holbrook and motivated him to head the Greater Hill District Reinvestment Fund as project manager, which will be releasing $1.3 million dollars into the community this week.

In 2023, $465,000 from the Greater Hill District Reinvestment Fund was made available to homeowners in the community whose houses required repairs.

In this second round of reinvestment, grant applications will be open for initiatives relating to children, youth and education, workforce development and general development, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s website, the administrator of the fund.

“I think a really great way to think of how the funds could be used to support the community is to look at the legacy of the community and think about what its rebirth could look like,” Holbrook said.

The Greater Hill District Reinvestment Fund is funded by a portion of the property taxes generated from property development in the Lower Hill. This tax abatement is called the Lower Hill Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) and diverts 50% of future property taxes into the fund.

The fund is also expected to receive $2 for every ticket sold for shows at the Citizens Live at the Wylie music venue that is currently under construction, according to a Lower Hill LERTA report.

As of Sept. 16, the fund had a balance of about $7 million. This money is overseen by an advisory board of 12 people from the Hill District.

“Within that vision, there are key components like being able to provide affordable housing, being able to provide opportunities for residents to access family sustaining jobs … The future of the hill has often included how residents can access these opportunities,” Holbrook said.

The Rev. Matthew Hawkins, pastor at St. Benedict the Moor Church and School, hoped that the funding did not just go toward better standards for academics, but also toward education on social development both in and outside of the classroom.

“There’s a socialization process,” he said. “Your behavior in the school has everything to do with academic success.”

Traits like showing up to class on time, raising hands to answer questions, respect and other aspects of what Hawkins called “character formation” are just as important as academic success, he said.

“What you can do is prepare a child and prepare their minds for opportunities and to create their own opportunities… so they can make their own decisions,” Hawkins said. “That educates people as human beings and not future employees.”

While the funds do intend to give Hill District children access to better academic opportunities, Holbrook said he hoped that these qualities are woven into applications.

“There is an openness in the way we wrote the guidelines for creativity and innovation to work on those soft-skills, as well as those hards,” he said.

Annette Piper, chief executive officer at the Center for Family Excellence in the Hill District, also wanted to see funding put into a multi-faceted youth education.

“There’s too many young people out there that have no direction,” she said.

Before the Center for Family Excellence, Piper was a principal and teacher at the now closed McKelvy School in the Hill.

She hoped that some of the money could be used on trade programs to fill the void that was left when the Connelly Trade School closed in 2004, which gave students an alternative to college.

Carol Hardeman, executive-director of the Hill District Consensus Group, said she hoped that wherever the funds go have a long-term impact.

“I would like to see the Hill District residents have some ownership beyond construction,” she said. “It should be money that you can invest in and roll over and keep making money off of it.”

She felt that the first round of funding was helpful, but that it was not enough to meet the need for housing repairs.

Holbrook said that more than 280 people applied for these housing grants, and that while he recognized the need for more repairs, getting to all the applicants would have completely depleted the fund.

Still, he said the board who oversees the fund has been considering ways to meet demand.

“We’re currently thinking through as a board what a second round [of housing funds] could look like… how we can allocate some money from different items to support that,” Holbrook said.

Another point of concern regarding the fund is a lack of education among residents on the specifics of economic development within the Hill District.

“You have many long-time residents and things that are happening right under their noses and they don’t know why,” Piper said.

Hawkins believed that one of the ways members of the communities could become more knowledgeable on the topics was for independent experts, such as university professors, to hold forums and answer questions on relevant subjects. This way, he said residents could have more of a say in what is happening in their community.

Holbrook said he has not brought in any independent experts to speak with residents, but that he has focused on regularly interacting with community members and reaching out to local groups in order to maintain a direct line of communication. He has also spoken at meetings to explain aspects of the plan and answer questions from residents.

He said utilizing the fund will be a learning process for everyone.

“When it comes to the reinvestment fund, we understand that this first round of funding was definitely a clear opportunity for us to learn,” Holbrook said. “I think that’s one of the beautiful parts of the reinvestment fund, and the fact that it is community led via the advisory board. Because of the structure, there is an ability to be able to refine and improve the process as we move forward.”

Josh Imhof can be reached at imhofj@duq.edu