Hawthorne neighborhood takes steps to climb out of crisis

A north Minneapolis neighborhood hit hard by the mortgage foreclosure crisis is taking steps to recover.

The Hawthorne neighborhood community council has a wide ranging plan for buying foreclosed properties and either rehabilitating them or building new dwellings.

One of the Hawthorne neighborhood's first steps is the creation of a tree nursery. Residents say people moving into the neighborhood can get plantings at the nursery if the trees on their property have died or been removed.

Hawthorne resident Kathy Welch said recovery will take a long time.

"We have other areas in the neighborhood of Hawthorne that are still struggling. But talking to the neighbors in those areas, it's getting better. People are purchasing some properties, their rehabbing them. I think we're on the way up but it's going to be a slow difficult climb," Welch said.

More than 100 homes have been hit by foreclosure with many of them vacant and boarded in the Hawthorne neighborhood.

Community residents in a portion of Hawthorne are using grant money to renovate a four square block area where nearly all the homes are boarded and vacant.

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