The challenge

Until last year, in the New Road neighborhood of Exmore, Va., 85 percent of approximately 300 African-American residents had no indoor plumbing. Residents collected water from outdoor spigots and used outdoor pit privies. Poor soil conditions and a high water table prohibited the installation of individual septic systems. In the early 1990’s, the Accomack Northampton Planning District Commission had proposed a regional sewage treatment facility for the town of Exmore. Nonetheless, the plan was rejected after it was opposed by a group of the town's residents – all of whom had private septic systems. The Exmore town council argued that the facility would be too costly, but many residents of New Road believed that opposition to the sewage treatment facility had more to do with race than finance. Indeed, the issues are larger than sewage treatment. Most residents of New Road are low wage earners working in the poultry, agricultural, and seafood industries, fast foods, and domestic services. Most young people go to work in the same industries; a few enter the military. Almost none aspire to college. Much of New Road’s housing still consists of aging, substandard structures with leaky roofs, rotten floors, and no insulation. Unsafe kerosene heaters and wood burning stoves with outmoded chimneys heat
most dwellings.


Seeds of commitment

When she was 3-years-old, Ruth Wise moved to New Road with her grandparents. In those days, as she describes it, New Road “was a place where many low-wealth, working class people came to build humble abodes to try to stake their share in the American Dream. There was a sense of pride in ownership of property.” New Road, though poor, was a place “where the youth had dreams for a brighter future, where children could draw their circles wider and see themselves as worthy human beings.” After graduating from high school, she was the first person in her family – and one of the first from New Road – to attend college. After several years away, she came home, and her four children spent many of their formative years in the neighborhood. “Though most of the residents were the progeny of families that had been in the community for generations, the neighborhood had become one largely of renters.” Neighborhood pride had eroded, hope was largely gone, and outsiders had assigned New Road a new name, "Scagtown.” Angered by the fact that many people outside the neighborhood considered people of New Road “somehow lesser human beings,” Wise vowed to improve living conditions. “As someone once said, 'I am one and only one; I cannot do everything, but I can do something and what I can do I must do, and what I must do, by the Grace of God, I will do.’”


Accomplishments

“A decade ago, we realized that unless we stood up and spoke out for ourselves the New Road community would enter the next century under the same living conditions,” says Wise. The New Road Community Development Group of Exmore, Inc. (N.R.C.D.G.), organized in the fall of 1992, was originally an informal group of community residents that banded together to demand that local government officials provide indoor water and sewer services. “We came to understand that if our efforts to bring a sewer system to the community succeeded, the greater benefit would accrue to two landlords who owned three-fourths of the houses. Their property values would greatly increase, but most of the residents would still be renters. We struck upon the ‘wild’ idea of buying out the two landlords.”

With the help of The McAuley Institute, a Silver Spring, Maryland-headquartered organization that helps low wealth people build their communities, New Road devised an $8 million Comprehensive Community Revitalization Plan. Its three components were housing, economic uplift and human/community development – with sewer and infrastructure development as a central focus. In the summer of 1995 with a loan from McAuley, N.R.C.D.G. closed on the purchase of the properties from the two landlords – which included the dilapidated houses as well as 15 acres of farmland and woods. Wise’s organization subdivided and sold this land to residents so that they could become homeowners.

After years of struggle and persuasion, the town of Exmore voted to accept a Virginia Community Development Block Grant (C.D.B.G.) of $1.25 million for New Road’s sewer system and housing rehabilitation. Northampton County, in which Exmore is located, voted to accept a similar $500,000 C.D.B.G. grant for infrastructure development. In January of 1998, N.R.C.D.G. hired Ruth Wise as its executive director; she had already volunteered for five years as director. Since then, N.R.C.D.G. has overseen the installation of a community-wide sewer system; arranged employment opportunities for unemployed community residents; sold 16 lots to first-time homebuyers; rehabbed 10 units for new and existing homeowners with indoor plumbing and heating; constructed 12 new units; and received one of the top 2000 Best Practices Awards from the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. One supporter says, “Before the return of Ruth Wise, the New Road community had lost its voice, its ability even to promote the idea that change was possible. This community's achievements have begun to change the way people see themselves and how others see them.”


Her leadership style

Ruth Wise gave up her administrative position at the local community college and decided to work full time within her neighborhood. When she asked residents of New Road why they did not attend Exmore town council meetings or speak out for what they needed, they told her of their fear and their lack of formal education. She responded, “If you think it, I'll say it." At N.R.C.D.G. no decision is taken, no choice is made without the informed consent of the community. Initially, Wise’s goal was not to make friends within the town of Exmore. She quickly gained a reputation for her outspokenness and willingness to dismiss conventional wisdom and practices. Over the course of the community's struggles, however, her skills, knowledge and dedication won the respect of both the town and other communities. Despite past opposition from other politicians, the current mayor cast the deciding ballot in favor of the sewage system – and now uses Wise as a trusted resource for the town’s own revitalization efforts.


The future

In her efforts to prepare young people to assume future leadership roles, Wise urges younger community members to become VISTA volunteers in the neighborhood; some of them work with her organization. With young people involved, as one of Wise’s many supporters says, “when the construction of the last home is complete, the work within the community will not come to a close.” Wise points to New Road’s emerging economic development plan. “We have seven lots we plan to develop into light industry or retail; the income from these businesses will help support the organization. We’ll also have community facilities, open spaces, a common square; we’ll need to hire maintenance staff to maintain grounds and buildings. We’ll need all kinds of people to help build and maintain all of this. The way we look at it is we’re not building houses, we’re building a community.”


More about Ruth Wise

“Ruth Wise does not speak of social welfare or cash welfare or food stamps or banks providing financing for local people at high rates to buy trailers or cars or items that depreciate and lose value over time. She speaks of assets and wealth accumulation. She is visionary, a tireless worker for her community, but she is foremost a servant to them. People will say to her, ‘Oh, but you're different.’ She says, ‘Don't even try; I am no different than the single mother with three babies on welfare with a crack addiction. I've just been lucky.’ She does not coerce, she is clear, unwavering in her principles.”
– Arthur Carter, M.D., Executive Director of Virginia Eastern Shore Economic Empowerment and Housing Corporation

“For New Road's working poor - families who have lived on a soggy strip of land outside Exmore for generations - the dream is ambitious. They hope to build homes with indoor plumbing where decayed rental shacks and outhouses now stand. They want to build a community center, a chapel, a day-care center, playgrounds…'This is not just about indoor toilets,” Fred Gunter, president of the New Road Community Development Group, said to the bankers. ‘There's a better life at stake. We want to own our own selves.’''
– The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk) May 20, 1995