What if we were to tell you the City of Worcester invested $450,000 into the Chandler NRSA. None of the money came from your property taxes, but was 100% funded through the HUD (Housing and Urban Development) CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) and that the following results were realized:
- not one penny went to overhead/salaries
- 100% of the monies were invested into the Chandler Street NRSA
- Recently when HUD came to the City of Worcester to perform an audit, not one penny was questioned unlike the other 4 NRSA’s
- 100% of the awarded money was invested unlike the other 4 NRSA’s that spent only a portion
- 11 Facade programs were funded, when before us there was little to no activity with the facade program
- 5 video security systems were installed, and we have seen where the video program has progressed to now
- 15 smaller home improvement projects were completed (under 15,000 per house)
- 6 benches and 12 planters
- 23 residents were trained at MLK
- summer youth program to clean area was funded for three years that still exists today
There was more that was done but suffice to say this was a huge success. Why did the program end? Simply said the other NRSA’s did not do a good job and the end there are only a limited amount of CDBG funds available so the entire NRSA program was killed. Make any sense?
A program that invested in the commercial corridor (facade programs-planters-benches), helped improve security (cameras), invested back into the aging housing stock, employed youth during the summer, cost the tax-payers nothing and 100% of the monies went back into the neighborhood, not into overhead/salaries. Sounds like a pretty good idea to us?? Right now we are in election season do you think any City Councilors will bring it up????
For the record pretty much every Gateway City in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has an NRSA program. Thisnk about that? A city that desperately needs neighborhood revitalization has no NRSA’s in their city.
