FLINT, MI -- On any given day of the week, Flint resident Clarence Campbell can be found mowing and maintaining vacant properties throughout the city.
He doesn’t own the dozens of properties he takes care of — Campbell is one of nearly 1,000 Flint residents who maintain vacant properties through the Genesee County Land Bank’s Clean & Green program.
Funded by the Ruth Mott Foundation, Clean & Green supports community-based groups and organizations in maintaining and beautifying vacant Land Bank-owned properties.
Raynetta Speed, the Land Bank’s community outreach coordinator, said the program consisted of four or five groups when it started in 2004. Today, there are 63 Clean & Green groups.
“There are a lot of reasons why the program is important. It’s just good to have people caring about our community,” Speed said. “People get involved because they want to create a safe and clean environment for the residents in their area.”
Each year, the Land Bank selects groups through a competitive application process, and the number selected depends on funding. They must already be an established group or organization with a strong connection to the area they will be working in, have experience in property maintenance and have the tools and equipment required to do the job.
Each group is required to maintain at least 25 properties every three weeks, while some maintain as many as 130. The groups receive a stipend, the value of which depends on the number of properties the group maintains but equates to about $20 per property.
The groups are encouraged to use the stipend to employ local youth, as youth engagement is a huge priority in the program. In 2018, roughly 700 of the 1,100 residents in the Clean & Green program were youth.
Although it’s not a requirement, the application’s requirements and eligibility form states that groups should possess a commitment to engaging area youth. Speed said watching the young people get involved and learn from the seasoned people is her favorite aspect of the program.
“I like to see young people learning how to care for their community. If they don’t, what’s going to happen to our community when the seasoned citizens are no longer here?”
The positive impacts
Clean & Green groups maintained more than 3,700 vacant Flint properties every three weeks in 2018.
To help eliminate the danger posed by vacant houses, the groups boarded 80 vacant structures with decorative boards painted to mimic doors and windows. The Land Bank’s Decorative Boarding program gives an extra $1,500 to groups that want to buy the supplies and board up some vacant structures.
They also planted food gardens, flower gardens, trees and pocket parks on 23 properties through the Signature Greening program. Groups interested in doing the greening program receive an extra $200 to “create a beautiful spot” on a Land Bank property, Speed said.
Just since Speed started with the Land Bank in 2009, the program has grown by about 40 groups. Many groups come back each year, and Speed said she’s seen the program make a positive impact on many of them.
“I guess you really have to be around for a while in order to notice, to understand what a wonderful program and how the Clean & Green program has impacted the lives of so many people, not just by keeping the neighborhoods clean and safe,” Speed said. “The Clean & Green program has transformed lives.”
In addition to making the streets of Flint cleaner and more attractive, the program makes them safer, too.
In a 2018 study of the program, University of Michigan researchers found that Clean & Green efforts have reduced assaults and violent crime in the city of Flint by 40 percent.
Specifically, researchers found that streets with vacant lots maintained through the Clean & Green program had about 40 percent fewer assaults and violent crimes than streets with vacant and unmaintained lots.
“The extent of the findings was very, very encouraging,” said lead researcher Justin Heinze, an assistant professor at the U-M School of Public Health in a press release.
Heinze said the results of the study illustrate a large financial investment is not required to have an impact on reducing crime, but community engagement is required.
“It’s getting people out. It’s being visible and showing change. It’s creating pleasant scenery but also reducing opportunities for these vacant places to house or facilitate crime in some way,” Heinze said.
Somebody has to care
Born and raised in Flint, Campbell got involved with the Clean & Green program after he spent a few years maintaining vacant properties in his neighborhood on his own. He said he began mowing the several vacant lots on his street because he “just got tired of looking at them.”
“I had three vacant houses across the street from us and the grass was tall, and I just got tired of looking at it, so I just went out there one day and said, ‘It’s gotta go down,’” Campbell said.
Campbell is a pastor at Grace Community Christian Fellowship, and other church members wanted to get involved and help him out. So, in 2013, he started a volunteer group called Power of One -- Fight Against Blight.
In 2014, Power of One became a ministry of the church and an official Clean & Green Group. In addition to maintaining vacant lots, the group does a major park cleanup at least once every summer.
There are a lot of groups who get involved with Clean & Green the same way Campbell did, according to Speed — they got tired of looking at tall grass or trash in their neighborhood, so they took care of it themselves.
“I’ve heard from some of our new groups this year that they just got tired of looking at all the blight and wanted to do something about it,” Speed said. “And they were doing something about it but then they heard about the Clean & Green program and filled out an application. So we have a lot of people who care about what’s going on in their neighborhood.”
When Campbell started with the program, his group maintained 25 properties every three weeks. Today, that workload has grown to 115 properties. Every week for two or three days a week, Campbell maintains 90 properties with his crew, which consists mainly of his granddaughters, TeenQuest Pre-Employment students and volunteers from his church.
Campbell and his crew are assisted by a couple he met through church, Ray and Gayle Forbes. For the last three years, they’ve been maintaining about 25 properties every three weeks in the Potter-Longway neighborhood area.
Ray said he might have to stop participating in the Clean & Green program soon because it’s beginning to take a toll on his body, but it’s fulfilling work. He especially likes going back and consistently maintaining the same properties that were once in bad condition.
“Somebody’s gotta care,” Ray said.
Campbell has the same “somebody has to care” attitude. He does Clean & Green work a few days a week, in addition to owning his own lawncare company, being a pastor and the chairman of Eastside Coalition. It’s extremely difficult for him to even walk without a walker, but he doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
He’s even grown a habit of keeping a dumpster on his property, because he comes across a lot of illegal dumping and needed a place to put it.
When asked why he does it all, Campbell said, “If I could show you before and after pictures … it just makes the neighborhood, like you don’t have to close your eyes and drive at the same time. It can get ugly. I mean there are parts of the city now that have just one house on a block because they tore down so many vacant houses,” Campbell said. “It’s sad because Flint used to be such a thriving town, every house was full and people couldn’t wait to move here. Now, people can’t wait to get out.”
Campbell grew up in Flint in the Beecher school district. He moved away for about 30 years, but said he felt the need to come back after retiring in 2008.
“I love Flint because it’s home ... Flint is a place that has lost its purpose but is trying to find its purpose, and I want to be part of helping Flint recover,” Campbell said. “And so, that’s why we do Clean & Green, that’s why we do Power of One, that’s why we do all the things we do. It’s all to try and help build a better Flint.”