Whittier : Potential Investors Tour Neighborhood Near Park

A nonprofit, neighborhood-help organization presented its cause to a group of Southern California insurance company executives during a Tuesday walking tour of the streets around John Greenleaf Whittier Park. The organization, La Habra Neighborhood Housing Services, is recruiting the insurance companies to invest in the run-down neighborhood’s revival.

Neighborhood Housing Services groups work nationwide to create safe, healthy and affordable communities for lower-income residents by making low-interest loans, encouraging community activism and attracting private investors. Insurance companies already contribute about $160,000 a year to Southern California projects. The point of the tour was to get other insurance companies to help, Neighborhood Housing Services staff member Patricia Duff Tucker said.

Whittier asked La Habra NHS to take on the Whittier neighborhood after its residents objected to a city redevelopment plan that would have leveled many of the area’s homes to build a large apartment complex in the neighborhood a few blocks west of the uptown business district.