1999- Present

Established in 1999, Cornerstone West is a not for profit community development corporation, which grew from a collaborative effort between West End Neighborhood House, Inc., St. Francis Hospital and the community. In order to improve the economic viability of Wilmington’s Westside, Cornerstone West was designed to be a proactive catalyst for positive community revitalization and to deliver a housing system to serve the needs of Wilmington’s low and moderate –income families. Key goals of the project include:

1. To create homeownership opportunities through the renovation, construction and sale of homes.
2. To provide home improvement opportunities to current homeowners through the rehabilitation of their homes.
3. To facilitate collaborative strategies for community revitalization working with the neighborhood planning council, neighborhood association and small business organization.

Cornerstone West is designed to increase the rate of homeownership and provide additional homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate- income families.

In just seven years, Cornerstone West has enjoyed the following successes:

• 80 families will have purchased fully renovated and or newly constructed homes in our community by the end of the year.
• Renovated 5 additional homes for use by The Life Lines Program.
• 7 homebuyers were assisted in purchasing homes outside of the program.
• To date, over 450 families have entered housing counseling.
• While all families served through Cornerstone West must meet the NCC Median Income guidelines of 80% and below, 47% of our first time homebuyers are below 50% of median income.
• Property Values have risen over 100% in our community.
• The average sales price from Phase I-VIII has increased more than 100%.
• Homeownership rates in target blocks revealed rates as low as 8% before Cornerstone West and as high as 100% after construction and sales. The average of all the blocks analyzed revealed a 44% increase.
• 20 neighborhood homeowners have renovated their homes by utilizing $423,000 of the Neighborhood Revitalization Fund that we secured from Delaware State housing Authority.
• Phases I-VII are completely sold out. Phase VIII is 90% sold out and settlements began in April 2006.
• The YWCA anticipates 40 families will be ready to purchase this year. In addition, Ownership Works, a West End Neighborhood House program, continues to educate and qualify first time homebuyers for Cornerstone. More than 300 potential buyers are in counseling.
• Private development continues to notably increase in areas where Cornerstone West has already been working. Several private developers are building new homes and renovating others in the community. At least 20 new town homes have been constructed or are under construction priced between $144,000 and $314,000.
• Phase IX construction is underway and we anticipate construction to be completed in the end of the first quarter of 2007.
• Cornerstone West was designated the partner non-profit by Wilmington Housing Partnership in one of three recognized RISE (Residential Improvement and Stabilization Efforts) within the City of Wilmington. This designation affords Cornerstone the opportunity to access additional funding through WHP for gap funding.
• As a partner in the RISE zone, we facilitated and implemented the façade program in our community. 40 homes received façade improvements; these improvements included windows, painting, wood repairs, storm doors etc. In addition, we have received donated land and some grant funding for construction and renovation.
• Created a partnership with The Ingerman Group, which will provide 71 newly constructed affordable homes in the North East on the site of the Speakman Plant on E. 30th Street. Eleven homes are already under contract. Demolition of the building and construction is scheduled to begin later this winter.
• Cornerstone West received the HUD Best Practice Award in 2000.
• The Housing Capacity Building Program 2001 Organization Excellence Award for Housing Development.
• Cornerstone West was the recipient of the Ambassador Award from the Delaware Chapter of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials in September 2002.
• 2003 DECRAC Excellence in Community Service Award
• 2005 MARC NAHRO Award for Project Innovation and Community Revitalization
• Cornerstone West has been recognized for housing development and community revitalization in a number of recent newspaper, magazines, publications including Out & About, Spark, The News Journal, and the Clasi Standard, a publication of Community Legal Air Society, Inc.

The voluminous success of Cornerstone West is due to the support of various government agencies, private and public funding sources and banks. A listing of all Cornerstone West contributors is attached.

Board Of Directors

Financial Supporters