Stevens Square Community Organization: Life in the heart of Minneapolis

Stevens Square-Loring Heights was one of the first neighborhoods in Minneapolis to participate in the Neighborhood Revitalization Program in the early 1990s.  The Phase I plan leveraged other public and private funds to rehabilitate deteriorating apartment buildings, improve the Nicollet Avenue streetscape, install community gardens and the 17th Street Overlook and Greenway, support community crime prevention activities, and more.  The neighborhood accessed more than $4 million in NRP funds through Phase I. 

In 2002, SSCO finished a comprehensive planning process for NRP Phase II.  That plan guides much of our work today.  It includes approximately $375,000 in funding for residential improvement loans, a Perpetual Affordable Home Ownership fund, a Building Safety Improvement matching grant program, a Commercial Development Incentive Fund, and support for community safety, gardening and outreach and events activities.  In 2005, SSCO re-allocated nearly $1 million in NRP Program Income from Phase I to supplement available funding to realize the Phase II plan.