Recently Create WV had the pleasure of participating in the NAACP Economic Development forum at Grace Bible Church on the West Side of Charleston. Reverend Matthew Watts, a "Creative Cone" award winner at the 2008 Create WV Conference, lead the discussion that centered on WV Senate Bill No. 573, which is "relating to providing a procedure for the economic development authority to address employment and economic development problems of minority populations of this state."
The bill, passed in 2004, calls for the WV Economic Development Authority to take very proactive steps to ensure that investments and opportunities within the minority communities of West Virginia, especially counties with higher percentages of minority populations, are developed. Unfortunately, the bill does not set any specific goals and has no "teeth" in the sense that no penalties are laid out if these legal requirements aren't followed. Not surprisingly, very little, if anything, has been done to stimulate entrepreneurship or economic growth in West Virginia's minority communities.
One idea being put forth by Rev. Watts' HOPE organization is a project to build new housing in the West Side neighborhood of Charleston. As Rev. Watts explains, the system of Section 8 and public housing has been a disincentive for minority citizens to own their own property. Much of the housing stock is owned by landlords that do not live in the neighborhood, and often not even in the state. Even if members of the community wanted to own their own home, few landlords would sell to them, leaving few options to build equity. This project would launch the construction of new houses for sale within the community and also hire local youth recently trained in building trades.
Rev. Watts and others in the community have wisely highlighted the acquisition of property and building equity ownership as a key to empowering poorer citizens. As one specific opportunity that is well developed and ready to get started, he and others would like Senate Bill No. 573 to be fulfilled so that support for this new home building project could be secured.
The issue of land ownership is a critical problem across West Virginia. Many rural, mostly white and poor counties across West Virginia are in the same boat. Only this time, their land issues are related to out-of-state land owners that own vast tracts of land that are leased for natural resource extraction. According to local citizens from those counties, the landowners often have little interest in the local community and are unresponsive to requests by local communities for flexiblity required for economic development ideas to be launched.
In addition to equity and property ownership, it is clear that building an entrepreneurial culture in both urban minority and rural white communities is so critical to our future. There is a palpable sense of frustration over lack of tangible opportunities. There is frustration over the perception that poorer or disenfranchised members of our state do not have a seat at the "good old boys" table when economic develpopment dollars get handed out. Developing innovative, well-planned projects to bring to the table will help crack open the doors.
Some would argue that the whole system of the state government handing out economic development dollars is not a healthy thing, that it should be far more private-sector lead. That may be the case, but until we develop a vibrant private sector investment community in our state and WV continues to invest public funds into econ dev projects, we must ensure that minority communities and their ideas are seriously considered and acted upon.
At Create WV we believe that healthy, diverse communities are required for innovation, which is central to growth in the new economy. We encourage the WV EDA, the Governor's office and the State Legislature to fulfill the mandates of Senate Bill No. 573 and develop more proactive efforts for sparking economic growth in minority communities.
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