Friendship Houses

One of the city’s most distressed areas, with an abundance of crime and unemployment, Allendale was a neglected area where many families still lived in “shotgun houses” that had severely deteriorated. Two Friendship Houses opened here in 2002, having an immediate impact on the crime rate and the education levels of youth in the neighborhood. In 2006, the Friendship Houses also started serving as an anchor for the “Building on Higher Ground” housing initiative for Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans and other cities.

Crime was so rampant in this Bossier City neighborhood that even taxi drivers refused to go into the neighborhood. The first Barksdale Annex Friendship House opened in 2003 – and taxi drivers returned a short time later. The second Friendship House opened in 2009. Today, civic groups, faith groups, businesses, and other groups work with the Friendship House to continue the renewal in the neighborhood.

Site of a drug-related shooting and subsequent riot that drew national headlines, this historic Shreveport neighborhood is also the site of the first Friendship Houses to be constructed for Community Renewal. These Houses opened in 1997 and 1998. Drug traffic was so intense on the street where the first Friendship House was built that the street was referred to as “crack alley.” Today, the crack houses are gone and children can be seen daily at the Friendship Houses, completing homework, building positive relationships and working on service projects to further improve their neighborhood. Cedar Grove was also the first home of the Adult Renewal Academy.

The first Friendship House opened in this Shreveport neighborhood in May of 1997. A transitional neighborhood with a growing crime problem, Highland posed its own unique challenges. The second Friendship House opened in 1998 and the community coordinators gradually brought some unity to a diverse population. More than 700 children and youth have now passed through the doors of the Highland Friendship Houses and many of them have returned to serve as volunteers.  A modern two-story house has since replaced one of the first houses, providing much more needed room for after-school activities, neighborhood events, family nights and much more.

Community Renewal’s newest Friendship House opened in 2023 in the Martin Luther King Jr. neighborhood in North Shreveport. Funding was provided through a partnership with Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway, which also has facilities in the neighborhood. T&B Construction, AEP SWEPCO and many other partners came together to make this dream a reality. This Friendship House serves as a beacon of hope for one of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods.

The first Queensborough Friendship House was built with help from local professional golfer David Toms in 2006. During the construction phase, contractors and carpenters noted that residents began to show great interest and renewed hope in the neighborhood. In 2012, the second Queensborough Friendship House was built through the proceeds from the House of Hope campaign.  The Friendship Houses have helped to reduce crime and unify residents while providing educational opportunities and service projects for neighborhood youth.