History

Influential leaders and activists founded the Northwest Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Corporation in 1991 with the assistance of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), which started a Neighborhood Development Initiative (NDI) in 1990 in Palm Beach County. Community residents, leaders and various stakeholders responded positively to LISC’s idea of revitalizing communities to its original, viable economic state thus creating a better place to live.

A 12-member volunteer board was created to ascertain the prevailing problems and to develop solutions. Several problem areas including high crime, unemployment, low real estate value, low rate of home ownership, and physical dilapidation were identified. Since a group of volunteers could not resolve all these issues simultaneously, it was decided that single-family housing development for homeownership would be the catalyst for the revitalization process. 

Community leaders and residents felt that homeownership would raise the stakes. That people, by owning a piece of the community, will feel an increased sense of duty in keeping it clean, protected and crime-free. Therefore, the CRC has been a housing provider since its inception.  

Northwest Riviera Beach CRC’s target area is from Martin Luther King Boulevard North to Silver Beach Road and from Avenue S East to Dixie Highway. The CRC has progressively grown over the past six years. To date, we have helped 750 household members. We assisted in generating $13.4 million in first mortgages, $4.2 million in second mortgages, and $200,000 in third mortgages.  

NWRBCRC now has four employees and two AmeriCorps volunteers. The board of directors continues to be active participants. During the first 10 years, the CRC’s primary focus was developing simple family affordable housing through its first-time homebuyer’s program. In 2002, the Board of Directors expanded its mission to include commercial real estate development and community projects of greater economic impact and scale. Several collaborative studies between the CRC and other entities concluded that the community had a great need for a program that would provide a comprehensive one-stop shop of services. In 2004, a partnership was entered into with the United Way of Palm Beach County wherein the CRC would become a host site for a ‘Prosperity Center’ through a grant from the Knight Foundation, thereby creating a ‘One-Stop Service Center’.