In 1970, West Elmwood Housing was an organization that provided homeownership opportunities in the West Elmwood neighborhood. In 1980, the West End Foundation, a small resident-led community organization run by volunteers was working together in the West End to address vacant lots and abandoned properties. In a time with overwhelming disinvestment, residents came together to invest in their community and those who lived and worked in it. Residents organized to create a Neighborhood Crime Watch, advocated for trash pickups and resources for residents to become homeowners. At the end of the 1980’s these two organizations came together to become the West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation (WEHDC) we know today.
In just 50 years, WEHDC has become a dynamic 501c(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of promoting the development of healthy, sustainable communities through housing services to help individuals and neighborhoods meet their affordable housing needs in the West End neighborhood and other parts of Providence and Rhode Island.