Rochester's JOSANA Neigh­borhood: Building Hope from the Ground Up

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- What some considered a violent, crime-ridden neighborhood is taking on a new landscape. The JOSANA community is a part of an ongoing revitalization effort.

“It’s the new houses coming up, and seeing the neighborhood reversing from ugly to beautiful,” said Rochester resident Larry Williams.  He lives in the heart of the community.

The Charles Settlement House and Rochester's Cornerstone Group are developing the 45-unit family rental project. It includes single family homes, duplexes and triplexes along West Broad Street. 22 of the homes are already up, with the remainder of the units expected to be complete by the end of the year. Habitat for Humanity is also building new homes in the community.

All the action is feet away from Sahlen’s Stadium which opened in 2006. “That stadium brought a lot of clarity and cleared a lot of ground for things to change,” said Williams.

The project has sparked a new sense of community pride. “We were looking for something that we could do in the neighborhood that we could do to beautify,” said Henry Major. He’s the president of Triangle Block Club and member of Charles House Neighbors in Action Group. Major is also a property owner in JOSANA and helps lead the effort to maintain the Town Square flower garden at the corner of Broad and Smith Streets.

It’s one of the bright spots that welcome you to the community. “When they come in here from the soccer games, the football games, the drum and bugle corps come in the first thing they say is this is so beautiful,” continued Major.

But he wants to see more. He pointed out some of the progress and called on the community to help bring more changes.

“It’s developing the neighborhood. It’s developing what people need. New houses, a place to stay, and the next thing we look at is for security. We have police in here. We need all of this.”

Despite the all efforts, Major said the real change comes with the people living in the area.

"I’m very enthused about what I’m seeing, but we can do so much more if we get the community behind it."