WARREN, Ohio – Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership’s executive director hesitates to list one thing from the organization’s 2024 accomplishments of which he’s most proud.
But TNP made a lot of progress over the past 15 years toward its original goal and much transition toward some of its newer goals, Matt Martin says.
“We were very much launched as an organization that was meant to focus on addressing blight, which was a very prevalent condition when we started 15 years ago in Warren,” he says.
It’s not mission accomplished, Martin says. But there have been significant strides in demolition and vacant house renovations to a point where vacant housing stock is much more manageable.
The organization is adding new construction to its efforts this year.
“What I see as a success is that the housing stock is stable in the sense that as long as we continue to do what we’ve been doing, it’s very manageable,” Martin says.
The agency sold $425,900 in property and leveraged $367,710 in private investment through buyer renovations, according to the organization’s 2024 annual report.
“I’m also very, very proud of our Home Repair program because it’s done a phenomenal job over the last year,” Martin says.
Through its Emergency Home Repair program, TNP completed 304 repairs, assisting 222 households across Trumbull County.
Repairs offered include fixing and replacing furnaces, roofs and gutters and hot water tanks as well as accessibility modifications, lead-safe homes and plumbing and electrical issues. Martin says that work will continue this year.
While TNP will continue those efforts in rehabilitation, it will build four single-family homes this year, its executive director says
“This is a new one for us,” Martin says. “Just like everything else we’ve done, we start with a couple and then we’ve been able to figure out how to scale it up. We’re going to build four houses because that’s what we have funding to do this year. But that’s by no means the limit. We intend to take it forward in the same way that we’ve taken everything else forward.”
TNP’s 2024 annual report points to the completion of 54 residential and four commercial demolitions last year, bringing to 1,376 its total demolitions to date.
Since its start, the Trumbull County Land Bank, which is managed by TNP, has demolished more than 1,300 properties, renovated 500 and facilitated the sale of more than 2,100 vacant lots to adjacent property owners, aiming to create healthier neighborhoods through blight remediation and access to homeownership opportunities.
A total of 24 brownfield projects is underway, many of which involve site assessments funded through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Targeted Brownfield Assessment Program. It’s a program that allows assessments to be done at no cost to property owners who aren’t responsible for the contamination.
“These assessments play a crucial role in advancing efforts to clean up abandoned industrial sites and support community revitalization throughout the county,” TNP’s annual report says.
Pictured: Trumbull County Courthouse in Warren. Jack W. Pearce, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.