Jamie Moffett | |
|---|---|
 Moffett in Florence, 2007 | |
| Occupation(s) | Director, producer |
Jamie Moffett is an American independent motion picture director, producer, and social activist.
Jamie Moffett | |
|---|---|
| Moffett in Florence, 2007 | |
| Occupation(s) | Director, producer |
Jamie Moffett is an American independent motion picture director, producer, and social activist.
Moffett attended Eastern University. [1] After graduation, Moffett co-founded The Simple Way, a non-profit organization focused on community development in Kensington, Philadelphia along with Shane Claiborne in January 1998. [2] [3]
In 2003, Moffett was nominated for a Barrymore Award in Outstanding Theatre Sound Design. [4]
In 2008 Moffett premiered his first feature documentary film, The Ordinary Radicals , in which Moffett followed authors Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw on their 11,000 mile "Jesus for President" book tour. [5] [6]
Moffett's second feature, "Return to El Salvador", documents the aftermath of a 12-year civil war and the interplay between the Salvadoran people and the US politics and policies that directly influence the Central American country. [7] [8] [9] Narrated by Martin Sheen, the film includes an interview of former US ambassador to El Salvador Robert White, [8] [10] and an endorsement by Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Jamie Moffett has also gained media recognition for his advocacy efforts in the areas of urban poverty, crime reduction, and homelessness. He is the founder of a Philadelphia-based campaign, Kensington Renewal Initiative , which was created to garner local and statewide support to decrease drug related crime in the low income, urban Kensington neighborhood. Moffett established his film studio across the street from The Simple Way in Kensington in 2007, and was immediately troubled by the high levels of drug activity within the vacant house behind his studio. [11] Moffett discovered that the house and over 300 other vacant properties in the area were owned by notorious slumlord, Robert (Bob) Coyle. [12]
After a failed attempt to purchase the blighted property from Coyle in 2007, [13] Moffett launched the Kensington Renewal Initiative to make an official, determined effort to lessen the crime correlated to the vacant properties by working to rehabilitate the homes and resell them as owner-occupied properties. [14] In 2012, Coyle was indicted and imprisoned with multiple counts of fraud, [12] and the Kensington Renewal Initiative rehabilitated its first home. [15]
Moffett explains his perspective on why he began Kensington Renewal Initiative, “The light bulb went on for me when I took a look at the city block and thought of it from a movie director’s perspective. The question became, what kind of movie do I want to be in? Do I want to be in a crazy drug-addled, post-apocalyptic nightmare or do I want to be in a great clean environment with plants and trees and flowers and kids playing?" [16]
Moffett's Initiative takes the position that by denying loans to high credit families pursuing lower-value homes, illegal drug activity is perpetuated in dilapidated, owner-vacancy lots in urban neighborhoods like Kensington. [17] Moffett's initiative gained the support of Senator Bob Casey, Jr. when the Senator toured the neighborhood with Moffett in October 2012. The Senator found Moffett's platform be true, and began efforts to ease this burden and increase opportunities for homeownership for low-income families. [18]
Moffett's ultimate goal for Kensington Renewal Initiative is to develop a best-practices model from the Kensington project to be implemented to other urban areas in the United States to decrease crime by increasing the opportunities to establish owner-occupied properties in low income neighborhoods nationwide. [19]
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), also known as the Office of Housing within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is a United States government agency founded by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, established in part by the National Housing Act of 1934. Its primary function is to provide insurance for mortgages originated by private lenders for various types of properties, including single-family homes, multifamily rental properties, hospitals, and residential care facilities. FHA mortgage insurance serves to safeguard these private lenders from financial losses. In the event that a property owner defaults on their mortgage, FHA steps in to compensate the lender for the outstanding principal balance.
Lower Burrell is a city in northern Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, along the Allegheny River. Located approximately 18 miles northeast of downtown Pittsburgh, it is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 11,758 at the 2020 census.
Washington Square West is a neighborhood in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The neighborhood roughly corresponds to the area between 7th and Broad Streets and between Chestnut and South Streets, bordering on the Independence Mall tourist area directly northeast, Market East to the north, Old City and Society Hill to the East, Bella Vista directly south, Hawthorne to the southwest, and mid-town Philadelphia and Rittenhouse Square to the west. The area takes its name from Washington Square, a historic urban park in the northeastern corner of the neighborhood. In addition to being a desirable residential community, it is considered a hip, trendy neighborhood that offers a diverse array of shops, restaurants, and coffee houses. Washington Square West contains many gay-friendly establishments, especially in the gay village area of the neighborhood commonly known as the Gayborhood, which hosts annual events celebrating LGBT culture in Philadelphia, including OutFest.
Fishtown is a neighborhood in the River Wards section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Located northeast of Center City Philadelphia, its borders are somewhat disputed today due to many factors, but are roughly defined by the triangle created by the Delaware River, Front Street, and York Street. Some newer residents expand the area to Lehigh Avenue to the northeast, while some older residents shrink the area to Norris Street. It is served by the Market–Frankford Line rapid transit subway/elevated line of the SEPTA system. Fishtown was a largely working class Irish Catholic neighborhood, but has recently seen a large influx of young urban professionals and gentrification.
Kensington is a neighborhood in Philadelphia that belongs to Lower Northeast. As with all neighborhoods in the city, the lack of any official designation means the boundaries of the area vary between sources over time and are disputed among locals. Kensington, as most long-term residents view it, refers generally to the area consisting of Kensington, East Kensington, West Kensington, and Harrowgate. The adjacent Fairhill and Norris Square neighborhoods are more separate but may be included in Kensington; Fishtown and South (Olde) Kensington were historically included. The most conservative boundaries of the neighborhood, shown in the map below, are Front Street and 5th Street to the west, the Amtrak train tracks to the North, Trenton Avenue, the Trenton Avenue train tracks, and Frankford Avenue to the east, and Cecil B. Moore Avenue to the south.
Port Richmond is a neighborhood in the River Wards section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is notable for its extremely large Polish immigrant and Polish American community. The neighborhood is also home to a large Irish American community and sizable German and Italian communities as represented in the various churches and organizations. In more recent years, a sizable Albanian community has moved in. The Richmond Zip Code is 19134. A small portion of the neighborhood, north of Castor Avenue, falls into the 19137 ZIP code.
Grays Ferry, also known as Gray's Ferry, is a neighborhood in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, bounded (roughly) by 25th Street on the east, the Schuylkill River on the west, Vare Avenue on the south, and Grays Ferry Avenue on the north. The section of this neighborhood west of 34th Street is also known as Forgotten Bottom.
Fairhill is a neighborhood on the east side of the North Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Fairhill is bordered by Front Street to the east, Germantown Avenue to the west, Allegheny Avenue to the north, and Cumberland Street to the south. The neighborhood serves as the center of the Hispanic community of Philadelphia, and is known for its "El Centro de Oro" commercial strip along North 5th Street. Fairhill is adjacent to Harrowgate and West Kensington to the east, Hartranft to the south, Glenwood to the west, and Hunting Park to the north.
Sharswood is a small neighborhood in the North Philadelphia section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is located to the east of Brewerytown, north of Girard College, west of Ridge Avenue, east of 24th Street and south of Cecil B. Moore Avenue. It is often grouped with Brewerytown, as in the Brewerytown-Sharswood Community Civic Association, and the Brewerytown-Sharswood NTI Planning Area.
Olde Kensington, also known as South Kensington, is a neighborhood located in North Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. South Kensington is north of Northern Liberties, south of Norris Square, east of Ludlow, and west of Fishtown. The boundaries of the neighborhood are Berks St. (north), Girard Ave (south), Front St (east) and 6th St. (west).
The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), formerly the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), is a Massachusetts public agency that serves as the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial developments.
Shane Claiborne is an evangelical Christian leader, an author, one of the founding members of the non-profit organization, The Simple Way, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, cofounder of the Red-Letter Christians. Claiborne is also a social activist, advocating for nonviolence and service to the poor. He is the author of the book, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical.
Clayton Morris is an American YouTuber, real estate investor, and former television news anchor. He co-hosts Redacted News on the video platform Rumble and on his eponymous YouTube channel and a podcast on Investing in Real Estate.
Gentrification is the controversial process of affluent people moving into a historically low-income neighborhood. It is often criticized because the current residents have limited options to buy or rent equivalent housing in alternative areas at the same price. If they stay, prices for products, services, and taxes rise and existing social networks are disturbed. Gentrification is the opposite of white flight—when residents voluntarily move away as a neighborhood declines.
The Ordinary Radicals is a 2008 documentary film directed by Philadelphia filmmaker Jamie Moffett.
Pittsburgh is a neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, founded in 1883 as a Black working-class suburb alongside the Pegram rail shops. It was named Pittsburgh because the industrial area reminded one of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and its famous steel mills. Pittsburgh is a working class and developing neighborhood, and as property values rise in Intown Atlanta neighborhoods, many see possibility that this trend will spread to Pittsburgh while bringing renewal for legacy residents.
Return to El Salvador is a 2010 documentary film directed by Philadelphia filmmaker Jamie Moffett and narrated by Martin Sheen. It chronicles the rebuilding of El Salvador in the years after the Salvadoran Civil War, and explores the impact a lasting legacy of violence and unrest has had on those who survived, fled, and are now seeking to return.
Margaret McKenna is an American religious sister and anti-militarist activist. Raised in Hackensack, New Jersey, she earned her PhD in the origins and religious thought of Christianity from the University of Pennsylvania. In the 1970s, McKenna began participating in non-violent civil disobedience with the Plowshares Movement, sometimes being arrested or imprisoned for her actions. Her activism has continued through recent years.
The Kensington Renewal Initiative (KRI) is a Philadelphia-based advocacy and community development organization founded by film director, Jamie Moffett. KRI was established to create a program model to rehabilitate blighted properties and dilapidated lots and transforming them into owner occupied homes for the purpose of significantly decreasing crime and drug activity in low income, urban neighborhoods throughout the United States. At the time of KRI’s launch in 2011, the Kensington neighborhood was the poorest in Philadelphia and had the highest rates of vacant property, consequently resulting in the highest rates of violent crime and drug use in Philadelphia. As a result of the collaborative efforts of KRI and its local and state partners, residents of one block in Kensington reported a significant decrease in the volume of criminal activity in the neighborhood in 2013.
Howard County Housing is the umbrella organization for the Howard County Department of Housing and Community Development and the Howard County Housing Commission. The Department is Howard County Government’s housing agency, and the Commission is a public housing authority and non-profit. Both have boards that meet monthly.