Janet Owens is in the business of helping older urban neighborhoods thrive.
Since August 2010, she has served as executive director of LISC Jacksonville, part of the national Local Initiatives Support Corp.
It’s one of 30 local affiliates of a national nonprofit created more than 30 years ago by the Ford Foundation to revitalize and improve neighborhoods.
LISC helps neighborhood-based nonprofits jump-start affordable housing and revive commercial retail centers that once were thriving.
On a national level, LISC administers grants and loans available to accomplish the mission on a local level. Owens said major local supporters include The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund and the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation.
Initial support was provided more than 10 years ago, in the early days of LISC Jacksonville, by the Lucy Gooding Endowment.
The focus for LISC has evolved from helping develop local community development corporations and the construction of new single-family housing into a broader mission to preserve multifamily housing in challenged neighborhoods. The latter type of rehabilitation project is complicated, she said.
“But because we and our partners are nonprofits dedicated to helping neighborhoods revive themselves, it’s worth it,” she said. “We realize we have to do it.”
LISC Jacksonville utilizes the national organization’s financial resources and expertise to build local partnerships and accomplish results. The local affiliate also is part of Renew Jax, a new city program to revitalize first the Kings Road area and then move on to the Beaver Street neighborhood.
It’s a natural extension of what LISC Jacksonville already is doing in the community, said Owens. LISC invested in Northwest Jax CDC and with Operation New Hope in Springfield to engage residents, businesses and neighborhood leaders to create a quality of life plan for those areas.
“Residents did a fantastic job of identifying all the things that make a quality neighborhood — improvements in education, wealth building for families and health concerns,” she said.
The local effort has assembled about $20 million in grant and loan capability.
“We attempt to bring capital into neighborhoods where private capital isn’t ready to go, but once we’ve invested and show the risk is minimized, others come forward. That’s what we like to see,” Owens said.
Before joining LISC Jacksonville, Owens was vice president of marketing and communications for the United Way of Northeast Florida. After eight years there, she was inspired to make a change.
“As much as I loved what I did with United Way, the connection with urban core neighborhoods and families who were committed, hard-working and challenged by all that is taking place in the economy was just a tremendous need,” Owens said. “This is my dream job.”
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