It’s only fitting that the Greater Cincinnati home repair nonprofit People Working Cooperatively (PWC) used an electric saw to cut the ribbon on its new $12 million Sharonville headquarters Monday.
Brick by Brick discovered dozens of solutions in Season 2, that are working to solve a variety of problems. None of the issues are easy and the ideas to solve them aren’t quick, but it appears they are slowly making a difference. Take for example attention to detail Cincinnati engineers used to create the perfect speed hump. After many iterations, the city has data showing the traffic calming devices are slowing drivers down. Meals […]
Cincinnati Parks will soon begin the largest reforestation effort in a city park in nearly 100 years following a $1.8 million dollar donation by an anonymous Amberley Village resident. What’s involved is the removal of invasive honeysuckle and the planting of trees in the 281-acre French Park, owned by the city, but located in Amberley Village. The Cincinnati Parks Foundation hopes this model can work in other city parks where the tree […]
New government figures find that even before the Iran war, one in three households faced some form of energy insecurity. Not only did people have trouble paying their heating and cooling bills but a separate study found the problem affected their mental health. Advocates are trying to bring energy insecurity to light and help those in need. The definition The U.S. Energy Information Administration defines energy insecurity as the inability to […]
A recent survey finds only half of Hamilton County residents consider themselves thriving. And for a variety of reasons, an increasing number are suffering. Community leaders want to turn this around and during a recent summit envisioned neighborhoods with more housing, investment and a greater sense of belonging. The problems During the 2026 Neighborhood Summit, held April 25 at UC, organizer Invest in Neighborhoods, asked people to envision the future. One reason Executive Director Elizabeth […]
Dayton and Montgomery County, like so many other places in the U.S., continue to face a shortage of low-income housing. For nearly fifty years the private nonprofit development corporation County Corp, has been creating generational wealth by adding new housing and working to revitalize neighborhoods. How is the organization doing it and can it be replicated? What do the latest housing numbers show? The need for affordable housing is increasing. The 2026 Gap Report finds 73-percent of Ohio’s 422,000 extremely low-income renters spend over half their income on rent. That’s up […]
For people with criminal records, research shows stable housing reduces their likelihood of committing another crime. However, hundreds of state and federal laws create barriers for people who want to obtain affordable stable housing. Ohio and a handful of other states want to change that and are offering a kind of guarantee to landlords. Overcoming barriers Many of the estimated 93,000 people released from Ohio prisons and county and […]
As the number of unsheltered people ticks up, state and local agencies are scrambling to find enough beds. They’re also having to navigate changing federal policies which threaten funding. Creativity is key and, in some places, it helps to solve homelessness. This includes the use of data analytics to keep people in their homes and state laws requiring developers to build affordable housing. Data Analytics During a January 23 roundtable at CET studios, President and CEO of Strategies to […]