Editor's note: This story was originally published in the Belleville News-Democrat.
Faith-based nonprofit Lansdowne Up is preparing to sell some of the $360,000 homes it built in a new East St. Louis housing development, officials announced at a news conference and open house on Saturday.
And the money from the home sales will go back into the community, according to Mark Mestemacher, founder and president of the Lansdowne Up board.
Lansdowne Up is named after the Lansdowne neighborhood in East St. Louis that it’s working to redevelop.
The nonprofit has been purchasing properties there to renovate or demolish existing houses and to construct new ones like those in the housing development, a 20-home subdivision called Lansdowne Park.
Lansdowne Park is located at the corner of North 25th Street and Gross Avenue. Kevin Green, Lansdowne Up’s director of administration, said it had once been the site of a community park, an extension of nearby Jones Park. But over time the area became blighted.
Now, some of the new three-bedroom homes are ready for occupancy and the nonprofit is looking for buyers. Other homes in the subdivision remain under construction, slated to be finished by the end of the summer.
Mestemacher said the money they make will help them continue cleaning up properties in the neighborhood. The nonprofit also has plans for another housing development half a mile away from Lansdowne Park.
On Saturday, nonprofit leaders shared details about the next development, opened the finished homes for tours and addressed questions about their high cost in a community where about 30% of the residents live in poverty.
Attendees included East St. Louis native and Lansdowne board member Jackie Joyner-Kersee, East St. Louis Mayor Charles Powell III, and three Illinois lawmakers: State Rep. Kevin Schmidt and State Sens. Chris Belt and Erica Harriss.
NAACP East St. Louis branch president questions costs
During the event, NAACP East St. Louis branch president Robin Carey-Boyd asked the nonprofit leaders how the average person in East St. Louis could afford a Lansdowne Park house. The median household income in the city is $28,519, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
“The average person is not going to be a resident in this particular neighborhood,” Green said in response to Carey-Boyd. “These homes are designed for the person from East St. Louis who has chosen to leave because they couldn’t find housing like this.”
Lorenzo Savage, co-founder of I Am East St. Louis, The Foundation, said higher-value homes will help with the high tax burden homeowners currently face in East St. Louis. In cities with lower property values, the tax rate that determines how much each resident pays is higher.
“It’s helping you with your taxes. And it’s encouraging other people to move back home,” Savage said. “… We need our people who work here to live here and have that money turning back over again like it did in the ’70s and ’80s, you know?”
Mestemacher said the nonprofit worked with the city on an incentive for people who buy the $360,000 Lansdowne Park properties: a rebate on their taxes for the next 18 years, funded by a tax increment financing district.
TIFs set aside some property taxes from the district for infrastructure improvements and economic incentives.
New housing
At the news conference and open house, Mayor Powell thanked the East St. Louis City Council and Illinois lawmakers for supporting the Lansdowne Park development with tax breaks and infrastructure funding.
“Whatever it is, we need to do what we have to do to get developers to come and develop,” Powell said.
Sen. Belt, D-Swansea, who represents East St. Louis in the General Assembly, said Lansdowne Park is just the beginning of development in East St. Louis.
“There’s a synergy in East St. Louis,” Belt said. “This is the first step right here.”
Lansdowne Up is currently working with the city on road and sewer infrastructure and a solution to the high property taxes for its next housing development in East St. Louis.
Mestemacher called it the Nectar Avenue project. It will include shipping container homes.
“There is a need for housing for young professionals. There’s a need for older individuals that are downsizing. So we have another project in the works,” Mestemacher said.
Lexi Cortes is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
