Tim Botos | Canton Repository | September 17, 2023
CANTON – If location is the three most important factors in real estate, it's no wonder the Jackson Sherrick public housing complex faces problems, problems, problems.
It's largely cut off from surrounding neighborhoods. The complex, with 340 units on 31 acres, is practically an island, with only one east-west road (Sherrick) in and out. Even worse, that island, built more than a half-century ago, happens to sit within the southeast section of the city.
That quadrant is physically "orphanized" from the rest of Canton, according to a 2015 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Impediments to Fair Housing report.
"Years and years of disinvestment," said Josh Crites, executive director of the Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority, which operates Jackson Sherrick among its 2,300-unit portfolio.
However, that soon may change.
On Friday, the Housing Authority was awarded a $500,000 Choice Neighborhoods planning grant for the Jackson Sherrick area, from HUD. It will fund a two-year process to devise a blueprint that could ultimately lead to an implementation grant of $50 million or so down the road.
"I think it's groundbreaking," said Crites, who began as director earlier this year and will leave at the end of the month due to family health issues. "This is a really big deal."
A committee of residents, agency, civic and government leaders now will begin work on the plan. It could include such recommendations as demolishing and rebuilding Jackson Sherrick and include a series of proposed public-private partnerships to leverage potential grant money into investments much larger than $50 million.
Jackson Sherrick residents will play key role in plan
Crites said efforts at improvement until now have been admirable. For example, work is underway on a grocery mart and health center on Gonder Avenue SE. But, he said, he realized fixes and sporadic improvements won't ever be enough to solve a larger problem.
So, he spearheaded the HUD Choice grant application charge. The Housing Authority had never applied for one or for any of its predecessor HOPE grants, which date to the Clinton administration.
The Housing Authority held some community meetings in April and May to gather feedback. Then, it enlisted support from an array of current and potential partners.
A parade wrote letters of support and pledges to assist. Letters written by everyone from the Southeast Neighborhood Association to Canton Mayor Tom Bernabei and the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce were included in the 119-page grant application.
The Housing Authority held some community meetings in April and May to gather feedback. Then, it enlisted support from an array of current and potential partners.
A parade wrote letters of support and pledges to assist. Letters written by everyone from the Southeast Neighborhood Association to Canton Mayor Tom Bernabei and the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce were included in the 119-page grant application.
Among the comments in the 17 letters:
Stark Parks Executive Director Dan Moeglin praised the "dynamic approach to neighborhood renewal."
Bernabei wrote that such a large-scale plan will enable "members of that community to move towards complete transformation."
Dan Lowmiller, executive director of the Stark Educational Service Center, volunteered to personally sit on the planning committee. "I served as the principal of the elementary school in the neighborhood, and it continues to hold a special place in my heart," he wrote.
A committee, the application noted, "will result in a robust public process where residents feel engaged, listened to, and empowered to speak their minds and willing to make decisions."
Residents would form the bulk of the committee, and they'd be eligible to receive training, education and make visits to communities that have received similar grants in the past.
Not only that, all Jackson Sherrick residents will be personally invited to planning events and meetings during the two-year process. To precipitate involvement, the Housing Authority will also work with a local childcare provider and provide meals to attendees.
"This holistic approach ... will ensure that our community members who know Jackson Sherrick and the surrounding neighborhood the best are not only involved but feel like they have the voice, expertise and power to impact the decision-making process," the application reads.
Poverty, segregation and quality of life in Canton
The Canton Repository recently spoke to residents in the Jackson Sherrick area, a combination of rowhouses, duplexes and apartments as small as one-bedroom and as large as five bedrooms.
Some like it there.
Yorman Mathis was hunched over the engine of his 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis in front of his Robin Court SE unit. He was waiting for a mechanic to return with the correct part and tools.
"Been here six years," he said, adding he has a wife and two children.
Mathis came from Detroit.
He said locals don't appreciate how good it is in Canton.
Others hate it at Jackson Sherrick.
"The house is crap," said 27-year-old Alexia Maxwell, mom of three kids between the ages of 3 and 9. "Mold ... and plumbing problems ... always people shooting (guns) and people fighting. It's nerve-wracking."
The application contends the units were poorly designed and constructed; that they don't promote the use of open space; and that residents often are too secluded to feel safe.
The southeast section of the city has an average household income of less than $15,000 a year, ranking it within the top 10% of the poorest neighborhoods in the entire U.S.
Other facts highlighted in the application: Only 1 in 3 people have a high school diploma; every child is eligible for free and reduced school lunches; 70% of all housing is rental; elevated infant mortality rates; high crime rates compared to other areas; and a lack of basic necessities such as doctors, dentists, restaurants, laundromats and banks.
The same HUD report which noted the area's outliner status, also called it the most racially segregated area in Ohio — 70% of the 12,000 people are African American.
How did Jackson Sherrick, SE Canton, get here?
It wasn't always that way.
Jackson Sherrick was established in the 1940s as war-time housing built by the federal government.
The Housing Authority was created in 1946 to run what evolved from that war housing, including Jackson Park Sherrick Court Homes. The grant application noted how the demographics slowly shifted as moderate-income white families moved out of public housing.
"Extremely poor African Americans began to move in," the Authority wrote. "This constituency had very little political power .... (the area) became the province of the persistently poor and African Americans."
Urban renewal created even more public housing to replace the war-time stock in the Jackson Sherrick community.
"As with many cities and public housing sites in the country, historic racism unfortunately played a role in the site selection of the Jackson Sherrick Community and the quality and standards of its construction," the application stated.
In fact, when the Housing Authority was on the final phase of Jackson Sherrick in 1967, it faced plenty of criticism. Local groups such as the NAACP filed housing discrimination charges with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
"They charged that African Americans were stuck in certain parts of the city, with little if any hope of relocation to a different part of town," the application stated. "While the Authority eventually stopped building ... opportunities for families in the neighborhood to move out were still slight."
Further cementing the area's demise was the construction of U.S. Route 30 highway overpass in the 1960s and 1970s. It effectively sliced southeast Canton in half, "demolishing the surrounding neighborhoods and changing the community forever."
Crites said he's learned so much about the area since arriving. He said he's amazed at how resilient the residents have been despite all the obstacles.
The Housing Authority application summed it up:
"Although the neighborhood has lacked any meaningful financial investment, there is great strength and power in the determination of the residents and the neighborhood," it stated.
"The individuals and families that make up the southeast quadrant and the Jackson Sherrick community ... invest their energy, time and passion. Make no mistake that this is a neighborhood that not only seeks out investment but demands it."
Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 ortim.botos@cantonrep.com.On X: @tbotosREP