New Community Corporation - Conclusion

Conclusion

NCC continues into the early 21st Century on a cautious path. It is developing additional homeownership housing, and recently built and opened a four-story office building so as to consolidate the management of its medical care services. It recently opened a for-profit temporary staffing agency for office workers, and continues to participate in welfare-to-work assistance contracts. The Pathmark supermarket itself, now owned by the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P), continues to operate as a successful and profitable business venture, both for Pathmark as operator of the store, and for New Community as owner and manager of the store complex. And NCC continues to be cited for its long list of accomplishments; had there not been a New Community Corporation, the City of Newark would not have experienced the same level of neighborhood and downtown re-investment as has occurred since 1980.

However, a growing number of experienced community development organizations in Newark now compete with NCC for vital grant funding. Most of these organizations did not exist when NCC opened its first housing complex in 1975. Also, a 1993 ethnographic study by the New School University (published in 1997) indicates that although New Community's broad range of services benefited its tenants in numerous ways, it could not shield them from the negative forces plaguing the surrounding neighborhoods, i.e. crime, gang activity, substance abuse, unemployment, social isolation, insufficient education and other human capital, etc. Although community development corporations such as the New Community Corporation will continue to play a significant role in addressing the needs of low-income inner city residents, their promise as the "magic bullet" against the cycle of poverty is now in doubt.