Posted on May 15, 2014
WORCESTER --- A different type of revival is happening off Main Street as you head out of downtown Worcester. Since the late 1990s, the Main South CDC has partnered with the city and Clark University to raze or fix problem properties, develop 160 new homes, a new Boys & Girls Club and do cleanup work on a site that will become athletic fields.
Why target this area? After the industries that made Worcester famous – corsets, shoes, clothing, machine parts – faded away, this 30-acre neighborhood became notorious for rundown buildings, crime and vacant lots. “This was a gangland section,” said Steve Teasdale, Main South’s executive director. “Only 30 percent of the mill space was occupied. In the 1970s, it was known as the heroin capital of Massachusetts. Nobody wanted to live here.”
Since 2000, Teasdale’s focus has been on the Kilby, Gardner and Hammond Street area. His CDC has rehabilitated 28 distressed properties, developed 36 new homeownership units and 22 rental homes. During this time, 30 homes in this neighborhood were bought by lower-income first-time buyers using MHP’s SoftSecond Loan Program. In addition, the rental development received long-term financing from MHP.
What is equally uplifting is the lives that have been improved. Take Lizmar Velez and Jose Escobales. Their middle daughter – Joseliz – has spina bifida, a birth defect of the spine. At age 6, Joselez cannot walk, talk, needs oxygen and takes nourishment through a tube. Before moving into a handicapped accessible first floor apartment developed by Main South, they were living in a fifth-floor apartment with narrow doorways and no parking. Getting Joselez to her doctor’s appointments was like climbing a mountain. “When I got this place, I cried,” Lizmar said. “Now, every day, we have something to celebrate.”