History of Properties of Merit™

The initial Properties of Merit™ program was created in 1989 in Oneonta, NY (13,000 pop.) by Siobhan "Sam" Bennett who partnered with the local newspaper and a group of community leaders she assembled.

Living all over the world with her family before settling in Oneonta, Sam fell in love with the slate sidewalks, beautiful Victorian homes and tree lined streets of this Upstate New York college town. What concerned her, however, was the trend of homes being converted to rentals with little attention to the external maintenance of those properties and the negative effect this had on the surrounding neighborhoods and overall community.

After college, Sam began purchasing some Victorian conversions and upgrading their exteriors with a view to enhancing the neighborhoods they resided in. Convinced of the relationship between a property’s street appearance to the quality of life in its surrounding community, she created Properties of Merit ™ to recognize and encourage quality property maintenance. The concept was a simple one – if you thank property owners who took exceptional care of their properties they would continue that behavior and inspire others to do the same.

"Well tended neighborhoods are safer neighborhoods".
In 1987 Sam relocated to Allentown, PA, a much larger community (106,000 pop.), but one that shared the sidewalks, historic architecture and tree lined street charm of Oneonta. It became clear to Sam, that though Allentown’s challenges were different than Oneonta’s, Properties of Merit ™ could be helpful in assisting Allentown with the crime issues with which it was struggling. After a year spent meeting with community leaders Properties of Merit ™ was launched with a dedicated cluster of Crime Watch and Neighborhood Presidents who based their program around the premise that "well tended neighborhoods are safer neighborhoods".

Program Success and Growth
The success of the program brought it to the attention of the Governor’s office and in 2006 Governor Ed Rendell recognized the contributions of the program and provided seed money through 2009 for the program to be taken state wide. Properties of Merit ™ is actively working to significantly expand its sponsorship and financial support base to accomplish this mission.

Affiliations
Properties of Merit is a member of PANO (Pennsylvania Association of Non-Profit Organizations) and is registered with the Pennsylvania Board of Charitable Organizations.