BY JOE ARCE AND COREY CRABLE
The Hispanic Economic Development Corp. honored two individuals for their community work on July 5 at the Westside neighborhood’s First Friday event. The event also paid tribute to the country’s first responders, healthcare workers, and military service members.
Gloria Ortiz Fisher, who retired a few months ago from Westside Housing Organization (WHO) was honored with a congressional proclamation by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) for her work with the Westside Housing Association.
“Thank all of you for your volunteerism and the work you do for others,” Cleaver said to Ortiz Fisher, the 2024 recipient of the Mid-America Regional Council Leadership Award. “And when we speak about people who are doing that, you can’t do it without talking about Gloria Ortiz Fisher. Westside Housing has been a staple of constant housing for the Westside going all the way back to the era when I was the mayor of Kansas City, and she has done a remarkable, a remarkable job.”
Ortiz Fisher thanked those who have offered their support of the WHO association, adding that homeowners who need minor home repairs but struggle to afford them can use the organization as a resource.
“We have an amazing minor home repair program which allows people that are making 80% of median income, I think for a single person that’s about less than $80 ,000 a year, they can have a home improvement, it’s usually about $10 ,000 worth of work. Sometimes it’s a roof, siding, windows, rebuilding a porch or something like that,” Ortiz Fisher said. “But we have a program at the office. If you’re below that income, 80 % of medium income, you can go out on the website and see if you qualify. And it’s actually a gift, and people don’t understand that. It’s a $10,000, $12 ,000 gift that you get. And we will make that repair for you. We will watch that repair and we’ll make sure that’s done for your home.”
She said the program can be a lifeline for local homeowners who want to stay in their home but might struggle with its upkeep from time to time.
“Sometimes that’s the difference between somebody having to move out because the roof isn’t functioning or staying in their home until they retire or until they want to leave,” she said. “So we want to keep you around, and we certainly appreciate anybody and everybody.”
Meanwhile, Pedro Zamora, executive director of the HEDC, honored Cleaver himself for helping to secure funds for work on the I-35 bridge, under which the HEDC’s regular Under the Bridge and Friday Night Fights boxing matches take place. This is the second year for the Under the Bridge series.
“One of the programs that probably nobody here has heard of is called Reconnecting Communities. It’s $13 billion dollars that President Biden put into an account for communities that were being that were torn up because of roadways. The church I served for years on Paseo, which is called St. James, it used to be Cleveland Avenue United Methodist Church, but long before I got there, they built I -70 and gave the people at the church $7 ,500 and told them to go find some other place to have church.”
Cleaver continued, “And so they tore down the church that meant something to people. And so it happened all over the country, it happened right here. This is a perfect example, they disconnected communities and they moved people out. So I think that with all of the great work that HEDC is doing, I’m hoping that we can plug into some of this money so we can try to get at least something that looks good looks better, and activities under (the bridge).”
Zamora thanked Cleaver for his advocacy for the Westside community and attempts to reunify the city on both sides of I-35.
“Congressman Cleaver has been instrumental in helping us secure funding, not only to do a Justice 40 study on what that highway caused to the community, but also recently he helped us secure a opportunity grant with HUD to evaluate the aging townhomes at West Bluff,” Zamora said, “and so he wanted to tie into Gloria’s efforts in housing and the social injustice that the highway brings.”
Finally, Zamora welcomed Pat Contreras, currently running for State Senate. If elected on Aug. 6, he will be the first Latino in the State Senate in the governing body’s 202-year history.
“I want to do is represent all the voices here today,” said Contreras, who served in the Obama administration as a foreign service officer. “Tell the community. It’s important. This is history and this is also our future.”
For more information about the HEDC and its other events, visit www.kchedc.org.
