City of El Paso Neighborhood Services Division

Traditionally El Paso, Texas, has been a haven for cheap labor and exploitation of the lower classes. Low-income workers in El Paso have faced discrimination and have been taken advantage of financially at every turn. This situation created whole neighborhoods and communities that were depressed economically and socially. In an attempt to help combat this situation, the El Paso Mayor’s Office began the Neighborhood Initiative in 2003. In 2005, the Neighborhood Services Division was created under the Community and Human Development Department under a new city manager form of government.

Neighborhood Services Division

The Neighborhood Services Division seeks to use comprehensive and holistic strategies to address a variety of needs for neighborhood planning and revitalization. They provide services for neighborhood organizing and association recognition, as well as a variety of economic, housing, social and infrastructural services for low- to moderate-income clients. While their typical client is a low-income resident, their goal is to improve the lives of all residents living in El Paso through quality-of-life efforts.

Reaching Clients to Impact Lives

Reaching low-income clients can be a challenge. The Neighborhood Services Division uses public service announcements, community meetings, an annual neighborhood summit, and registered neighborhood associations to reach out to clients. Working families also know that the program is trustworthy because it is offered through the City of El Paso and has a proven record of success; this makes them more willing to seek the services the division offers.

One way the Neighborhood Services Division has been able to have a major impact on the lives of low-income residents is through its partnership with the El Paso Coalition for Family Economic Progress. The coalition is a group of nonprofit, community and financial partners working towards financial stability for the disadvantaged through free tax preparation, asset building, financial literacy and the overall legitimization of client finances. Through the efforts of the many partners included in the coalition, they have seen new clients, as well as returning families that come back year after year because they know the services work and can be trusted and that the agencies and volunteers involved are committed to helping the clients—not to holding a bottom line or making a profit. By working through partnerships, the Neighborhood Services Division has been able to increase its impact in neighborhoods and communities.

Frontera Asset Building Network

The Neighborhood Services Division is also helping immigrant and Hispanic communities in El Paso and across the Southwest through membership in the Frontera Asset Building Network. This network of practitioners across the Southwest Border area has worked to coordinate efforts in order to better serve the low-income immigrant population across the whole region.

A Holistic Approach

Mark Alvarado, coordinator of the Neighborhood Services Division, feels a holistic and comprehensive approach to helping clients and improving neighborhoods is key to success. To help working families, it is important to look at the needs of the client, the neighborhood, the community and the region, and to partner with other organizations and entities that can offer their services to create change.

Overcoming Challenges

Some of the challenges facing Neighborhood Services clients include citizenship and immigration, as well as health and education services. The difficulties faced by his low-income, largely Hispanic clientele, remind Mark of his experiences growing up in a migrant farm worker environment, where discrimination was rampant and opportunities few. When Mark sees a new immigrant family struggling to assimilate and build trust in the American system, he knows personally the potential they have and the difficulties they face due to poverty, crime, social problems and stigmatization. Mark’s experiences have drawn him to this work and made him even more determined to help his clients achieve their potential through improving their financial and social situations and revitalizing the neighborhoods where they live and work.