A Career of Addressing​ Vacant Properties: Judith Arnold

Judith Arnold is a professional Urban Planner with a passion for working in underserved communities.  Her humble beginnings began in Cleveland, Ohio, where she grew up under her father’s music abilities, a well-known jazz artist and the music director of Quincy Jones. Her dad taught her the piano and an appreciation for the classics. Practicing renditions of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart were her daily routine, so was schoolwork.  Judith was the first African American to graduate from St. Joseph Academy. She enrolled in Cleveland State University, earning degrees in Urban Planning and History.  Her studies helped shape her outlook on life. She was mentored by Julian Bond, Fannie Lou Hammer, Don L. Lee, and the National Urban League Housing Director J. Harvey Kerns.  She submerged herself in the readings of Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael, and many more. Judith was fascinated by the Great Migration of African Americans to cities and focused on communities of color’s economics.

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After graduation from college, Judith became an AmeriCorps VISTA, volunteering for a year in Kansas City to repair homes in an inner-city neighborhood. Here, says Judith, “this neighborhood was destroyed by the riots of the ’60s. A group of Black Panther activists purchased several vacant houses and wanted to restore these. I was anxious to help even though my skills were next to nothing. But, I could learn.  So, a construction tradesman taught me how to recover roofs, paint, refinish floors and refurbish bathroom fixtures.” Judith was selected by the CORO Foundation as a Fellow to study St. Louis. “I concentrated on community development and held internships at Gateway National Bank, St. Louis Community Development Agency, Amalgamated Clothing, and Textile Union, media outlets, and political campaigns. “I wanted a well-rounded background in the community development and to learn the role of these institutions in the St. Louis community.” Then she enrolled in Occidental College to complete a master’s degree in Urban Planning and Public Administration. ​

​Photo of Judith Arnold at the clean up of the Hodiamont Tracks, Source: Fox 2.

Returning to St. Louis, Judith learned the rigors of urban planning under the skillful tutelage of Donald Spaid, Executive Director of the St. Louis Community Development Agency. Jointly they built the capacity of Union Sarah Economic Development Corporation and successfully won the first Urban Development Action Grant from HUD for the city to rehabilitate 150 vacant housing units for low- and moderate-income families (along Enright Avenue). Judith also worked on rehabilitating the old vacant General Van Lines building (Euclid and Delmar), turning it into the Central West Plaza with office space. Judith’s work pioneered current development efforts in Vandeventer and Fountain Park neighborhoods.  ​

​When federal funds for urban communities began to dry-up, Judith turned to the private sector for employment. She found Brown Shoe Company needed a planner for 50 shoe stores in various mall locations throughout the country. She jumped at the chance.

However, Judith wanted to go back to communities. She was hired as the Director of Development for Ecumenical Housing Production Corporation, and later the Archdiocese of Belleville as the Director of Foundations for St. Mary’s Hospital in East St. Louis. Here she provided safe rehabbed housing for 100 children who lived in lead affected conditions. Then she became the Director of Development for Catholic Charities of St. Louis, where she responsibly arranged housing rehab grants and other programs to meet the poor’s needs.  With ten years of community service, Judith's largest reuse project doing this time was the conversion of a vacant Catholic convent and school into housing for homeless men (Greater Ville) who were fathers of children and wished to become a part of their lives again. “This program offered housing and social services,” Judith said. She also said, “Housing these men became essential to the delivery of resources; successful outcomes were full employment, abilities to make regular child support payments, in some instances child custody, substantiated paternity, and legal assistance when needed. After completion, the men were able to live independently. And just as important, rehabilitation of this rather sizeable vacant space helped to stabilize the area.
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Judith Arnold continues to bring resources to St. Louis communities. She is rooted in the vacancy issues addressed by the SLACO Board and the Vacancy Collaborative. She is a Planner for the Greenway on the Hodiamont Tracks, a 3.5 capital improvement along the vacant streetcar right of way and spanning across seven neighborhoods north of Delmar Boulevard: Covenant Blu-Grand Center, Vandeventer, Lewis Place, Fountain Park, Academy, Visitation Park, and the West End.  She is a founder of the Delmar Collaborative, which also brings together the same neighborhoods while working on mutual interests with the Central West End and Skinker DeBalievere to improve Delmar’s image. Judith is instrumental in arranging tours for residents and others for SLACO’s Neighborhoods United for Change, a program that premiers neighborhoods north and south of Delmar and where residents can discuss differences and commonalities of city living.  There will be 15 tours this year, and some will be virtual until later in the year.  “The days of working in silos is over, says Judith; neighborhoods benefit more when working in harmony with others. After all, neighborhood problems are similar.” You can find Judith working with Missouri Senator Steven Roberts on legislation to reduce tax increases for elderly homeowners aged 65 and older.