By Josh Weinhold, Truth Staff
jweinhold@etruth.com
ELKHART -- When your city has an unemployment rate close to 20 percent, "community development manager" might not be an enviable job title.
After all, local government can only do so much to combat rapidly rising jobless rates. But Crystal Welsh, Elkhart's head of community development, said her efforts remain focused on helping residents survive the trying times.
"You want to be able to impact the most people in as positive a way as possible," she said. "That's what keeps me up at night."
Welsh said her department, which administers federal community development block grants and neighborhood stabilization program funds, is working to ensure the city will prosper once it comes out of the recession.
A $2.25 million NSP grant awarded to the city through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act represents a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to do good work, Welsh said. Elkhart gets an NSP allocation annually, she said, but the 2008 award totaled only $750,000.
With the additional funds, the city plans on acquiring 55 vacant or abandoned houses in and around downtown, demolishing 40 of them and renovating 15. The goal is to have affordable homes and open lots for sale by the time the economy recovers, Welsh said.
Ideally, families that had avoided buying a house or had moved in with family or friends to make ends meet will then be able to afford their own homes, she said.
"We're hoping people stay in Elkhart and ride the storm out with us," Welsh said. "Then, they'll look to buy homes here, and we'll be there with the NSP."
On the employment side of the equation, Mayor Dick Moore said Friday the city continues the fight to keep companies here and bring new ones in. City Hall has received countless calls and e-mails from start-ups and entrepreneurs that never become reality, he said, but the news is not all bad.
The city is talking to two companies, he said, and conversations have a "light at the end of the tunnel" feel to them.
Moore said the city has talked to one company by phone for about three months, and is hoping to arrange a personal meeting soon. The second company is a more promising prospect, Moore said, though discussions with them began more recently,
The mayor also meets with two or three Elkhart companies a month, he said, to listen to their needs and concerns. It's an effort to extend a hand, to show businesses the city will do what it takes to keep jobs here.
"If a company says we're done here in six months, we're going to step in and offer anything we can to keep that from happening," Moore said. "But we have not had a need to do that yet."
The times are certainly challenging, officials said, but the times have also brought great opportunity.
"We are receiving a lot of attention and a lot of money," Welsh said, "but to do the most good with that money is really kind of weighing on everybody."