In the traditionally male-dominated world of real estate development, three local women have broken ground and literally built foundations on which low-income housing development can prosper. As a resident in the West End of Providence in the early 1980s, Sharon Conard-Wells realized there was a need for change and wanted to do something about it.
Now more than 15 years later, she remains a part of that change, as Executive Director of the West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation. The organization, which Conard-Wells and her neighbors officially revived in 1989, after it had been dormant for years, was created for the sole purpose of cleaning up and renovating their neighborhood.
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“We organized in 1983, and though we were having an impact, we weren’t having the impact we thought we should,” she said. “So when we realized there was an organization in existence, and money available, we decided to formally organize.”
Now with a staff of six and an annual budget of close to $350,000, the organization continues to build and renovate low and moderate income housing in the area. But Conard-Wells says it hasn’t been an easy process.
“Real estate anywhere is location, location, location,” she said. “It’s no different for people with lower or moderate incomes. People want a place where they will get a return on their investment, where their children will be safe, and where they can make a contribution.”
In Bristol, it’s the belief that she is making both physical and mental changes in the local neighborhoods that keeps Linda Silveira in her office every day as the executive director of the East Bay Community Development Corporation.
But like Conard-Wells, Silveira said creating low income housing for families and the elderly isn’t always easy.
Then fresh out of college, and in her new job as a consultant for another Newport-based development firm, Silveira recalls her first meeting with neighborhood residents.
”We were trying to convert a vacant school building in Coventry into low income housing,” she said. “We went to the community meeting on a really hot summer night, and I could just sense the hostility in the air. When the director I was working for asked for a glass of water, nobody would let him have it. They wanted him out of their neighborhood.”
It was because of that, Silveira almost left her job to find another career, but instead decided to let the experiences inspire her to continue.
”There are a lot of people out there that don’t realize what low income really is, and my anger kept me in it,” she said. “Now I understand that you just keep reiterating what it is to be in that category. In one instance, I was required to knock on doors, and as I introduced myself to people in the community and explained to them what low income was, some were surprised that they fit into that category.”
Since she took over at East Bay Community Development, the organization, which has an annual budget of only $115,999 a year, has completed a renovation of the Kaiser Mill Complex in Bristol, which includes 96 units of low-income housing for the elderly. Construction on an additional 92 units started in September.
Since taking over the position as executive director of the Pawtucket Citizens Development organization more than four years ago, Kim Hadley has faced similar problems. Her organization has spent the last three years trying to rebuild the Barton Street Neighborhood of Pawtucket, and already the project has resulted in more than $1.5 million in renovations.
”That’s the reward of my job,” she said. “To have families move in. I know that I am putting people into safe houses that have been abated for lead.”
Still all three acknowledge that working in the male-dominated real-estate development field is a challenge in and of itself.
”On the finance side of things, once you show that you can do something and do it well, people respect you,” Hadley said. “On the contractor side, people really try and push your buttons. The only thing you can do is challenge them, and try and learn as much as you can.”
Conard-Wells agreed, saying the only way to deal with the “innuendoes” and subtleties is to “recognize it for was it is, not take anything away from it, and not add anything to it.
All of the women agree that finding financial support for their programs is one of the most difficult aspects of the job. They often look to state and federal agencies and grant funding, but it’s often not enough.
Conard-Wells said organizations like hers first have to be creative, and second have to be competent and willing to do the research to find different sources of funding.
And though all three women work in different areas of the state, they depend on each other for one main ingredient – support.
“There is a real network here,” Silveira said. “So it’s always nice to be able to cry on someone else’s shoulders.”
