Larimer and Homewood are two predominately African American communities near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Their populations have plummeted almost 80 percent population in recent decades, and the poverty rate is almost 40%.
Both are currently working to increase their resilience. Larimer recently won a $30 million Choice Neighborhood grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to create a comprehensive sustainability plan, install bioswales for stormwater management, distribute cisterns for grey water reuse, and tap renewable energy.
Small Change, a crowdfunding site for real estate development, wants to help revitalize places like Larimer and Millvale, because banks seldom want anything to do with such communities. They fund unusual restoration projects that major developers ignored. Some $3.5 billion has been raised from crowdfunding sites to date, but there is at least a $480 billion opportunity.