LAncaster Equity Community Development Corporation

From the 1980s until 2017, the Community Action Partnership (CAP) had a subsidiary called CAP Housing Inc., which owned and maintained a subsidized housing complex called Duke Manor. In 2017, that extension of the CAP was remade into Lancaster Equity Community Development Corporation.

Currently, Lancaster Equity still holds and maintains the Duke Manor property, which has generated significant revenue over the last several decades, and now invests that revenue in developing other properties around the County. Those properties are located primarily in the south side of Lancaster City.

See below to learn more about the other innovative ways in which Lancaster Equity is fulfilling its mission to:

“Provide Economic Opportunity for Everyone.”

Innovative Structure

Lancaster Equity (LECDC), a macro-collaborative community development corporation, is believed to be the first of its kind. LECDC’s board is comprised of representatives from a variety of organizations that do community and economic development work in Lancaster, including: Community Action Partnership, Spanish-American Civil Association, Lancaster County Workforce Development Board, Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership, Lancaster Coalition to End Homelessness, Lancaster City Alliance, Community First Fund, Tabor Community Services, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, ASSETS, and Habitat for Humanity proving that collaboration instead of competition can help make our community stronger.

Beaver Street Park

Through canvassing work and relationship building done by our Block CAPtain, Vasthi, it came to the attention of the Coalition to Combat Poverty staff that this property (a vacant lot) caused a lot of issues for this neighborhood. The neighbors were brought in to a community meeting to discuss the property and see what they wanted to happen with it and a consensus was formed that it should be turned into a park. From there, the idea was pitched to Lancaster Equity to purchase the lot from the Redevelopment Authority for $1 and the motion passed. When the Coalition staff and Beaver Street residents arrived at the Redevelopment Authority they soon learned that there was a competing bid for the property for $13,000 -a few hundred dollars higher than the assessed value- by a developer who wanted to turn it into a parking lot. When the residents spoke out passionately for the project they hoped to see in this un-utilized space, the city awarded Lancaster Equity the bid over the private developer.

Since that meeting, the organization has been working closely with RGS Associates and residents to create concept drawings that are thoughtfully designed to minimize safety concerns and are still in line with residents’ vision. The capital campaign has begun and we are actively seeking donations to implement the project.

Safe, Clean, Affordable Housing for All

Lancaster Equity rehabs blighted houses with CAP’s social enterprise construction crew, CAPital Construction, which is comprised of individuals with barriers to employment who are taught the soft and hard skills (including lead remediation) that they need to get a construction job in the future and are paid a livable wage.

Upon completing a renovation, LECDC either sells those homes to low-moderate income first time homebuyers through Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership’s First Time Homebuyer Program or acts as a scattered-site landlord depending on the property and the need. Since LECDC maintains nonprofit status it only needs to break-even to stay viable. However, when there is a profit margin those funds are reused to purchase other blighted properties and the virtuous cycle continues.

Statement on Racial Justice from Lancaster Equity Community Development Corps

Lancaster Equity is a coalition of organizations committed to contributing to a Lancaster where housing is affordable, where economic development includes everyone, and where neighbors, regardless of their skin color, are safe, respected, and treated with dignity. As Martin Luther King wrote from his Birmingham jail cell in 1963, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Our hearts grieve for the senseless loss of life of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and far too many others to name here, victims of systemic racism that infects our nation. But our spirits remain resolute that we must stand up for our values, we must denounce hate, and we must create true opportunity for our black and brown and all neighbors to thrive.

As a coalition, we have focused on expanding affordable housing and quality of life in Lancaster. It’s not lost on any of us that the challenges of our neighborhoods are the consequences of decades of systemic racism at play. Redlining that made it hard for people of color to become homeowners. Economic development campaigns that disconnected neighborhoods and gutted small businesses. Greater likelihood of incarceration. Fewer opportunities for jobs that offer upward mobility. Landlords who wield the threat of eviction to keep tenants frustrated by substandard housing from speaking up.

But we also know that these communities are resilient. That people of color are leading efforts for change within our neighborhoods and with their neighbors. That black and brown entrepreneurs are starting businesses and creating new jobs. That families are becoming homeowners on streets where they once rented.

Beyond this progress, however, we recognize that achieving true, sustained racial equity will require a confrontation with white privilege inherent in our society’s institutions and policies. And each of us, including the membership of this coalition, tackling our own privilege and implicit biases. We must practice anti-racism every day. 

Rooted in a belief that housing and economic opportunity are basic human rights, and clear-eyed that racism is an insidious threat to the well-being of our entire community, we reiterate our commitment as a collective to invest our resources and deploy our services in a way that lives up to our name – with EQUITY.

ABOUT LECDC

Lancaster Equity (LECDC), a collaborative community development corporation, was created in response to recommendations presented by the Mayor’s Commission to Combat Poverty in 2016. LECDC envisions a Lancaster where communities are stabilized and everyone has an opportunity to thrive. LECDC’s board is comprised of representatives from a variety of organizations that do community and economic development work in Lancaster, including: ASSETS, Community Action Partnership, Community First Fund, Habitat for Humanity, Lancaster City Alliance, Lancaster County Workforce Development Board, Lancaster Coalition to End Homelessness, Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, Spanish-American Civil Association, and Tabor Community Services, as well as community residents.