The east side of Worcester, Massachusetts, is springing back to life.

Once a thriving section of this industrial city, the working-class Bell Hill neighborhood had deteriorated piece by piece over the last few decades.

Now, through the work and vision of several local organizations, Bell Hill is rebounding. Affordable housing is replacing the decrepit buildings and vacant lots that have characterized the area. And restored buildings, new jobs, a community garden, and improved health care are among the many other reasons people want to call the east side home.

Seeking Stability
"We like to focus our resources where they can have the biggest impact, both visually and economically."

So says Dominick Marcigliano, who heads the Worcester East Side Community Development Corporation (CDC), a major catalyst in the redevelopment of this central Massachusetts city. The CDC has lately focused on transforming rundown or abandoned properties into affordable ownership and rental prospects for working-class citizens on Worcester's east side.

The CDC — one of six such agencies working to preserve or create housing in neighborhoods that have seen better days — can attest to the dearth of affordable housing in the area.

"As soon as we put one [of the redeveloped buildings] up for sale, it's gone," Marcigliano says.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston began boosting the area in 1999, when it awarded the CDC a $25,000 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant through member Flagship Bank & Trust Company in Worcester. The CDC used the grant to buy and renovate five distressed buildings in Bell Hill. Each of the homes — which are slated to be sold this summer to low-income, first-time buyers — has one to three rental units. Now, the $1 million endeavor is wrapping up just as another phase of revitalization is beginning.

In this second phase, the CDC will buy five abandoned properties on which it will build two single-family and three multifamily homes. The houses will be sold to five very low- and low-income buyers, possibly by the end of this year. To help the revitalization along, Flagship Bank again partnered with the CDC to win AHP funding. The Bank awarded the CDC a $197,190 grant in the second round of the 2000 AHP.

"While scattered-site redevelopment has its benefits, focusing on a specific neighborhood allows initiatives to achieve real economies of scale," says Theo Noell, the Bank's community investment manager who worked with the partners. "We see this both in terms of process — with partners becoming more experienced in how to best use the available resources — and in terms of product — with those resources producing housing stock while promoting significant community reinvestment."

Envisioning a Healthy Neighborhood
While the CDC improves neighborhoods one unit at a time, many other agencies are doing their part to improve Worcester's east side. The city, a local school, residents, youth centers, and private foundations are among those that have joined with the CDC in the sweeping East Side Healthy Community Initiative. The movement encompasses a range of education, health-care, and civic programs aimed at helping the mostly working-class and elderly people who live there.

UMass/Memorial Health Care, the product of a merger between two city hospitals, joined the initiative several years ago at the request of city officials, says Cathy Recht, the hospital's vice president of community relations. The health-care provider's facilities border Bell Hill and several other multicultural, low-income areas of the city.

"The [Bell Hill] section was 'on the fence.' It could have gone either way," says Ms. Recht, who cited absentee ownership, lack of parking, and safety among the residents' chief concerns. To those, UMass/Memorial added its own goal of delivering better and easier access to health care for the area's poor.

UMass/Memorial hired an outreach worker to determine residents' needs and connect them with appropriate services. Today, the liaison helps people find doctors, organizes first-time home-buyer's classes, sponsors neighborhood cleanups, and coordinates regular resident meetings. The neighborhood is also home to a new community garden sponsored by UMass/Memorial and built by residents on land donated by the city.

UMass/Memorial also employs Bell Hill residents to work at the hospital as nurses' aides, reading tutors, and housekeepers. And local families who need extra help get it.

"If kids are late for school, we buy their family an alarm clock," Ms. Recht says.

Planning for a Bright Future
Aside from its extensive outreach efforts, UMass/Memorial donates money to the CDC to help it buy and renovate properties. At the core of its efforts is a desire to foster both community spirit and independence in the Bell Hill area.

"We're trying to get the neighborhood to the point where, if UMass/Memorial wasn't here, it would be able to carry on without us," she says. To that end, the hospital has also taught residents how to write grant applications, and how to place their issues on the city council's agenda.

Transforming Worcester's east side into a safe, attractive, and desirable place to live is the CDC's main goal, and, for that reason, it stays in touch with the new home owners long after moving day.

"The key to our success is helping families work through the issues that always come with buying a first home," says Mr. Marcigliano. The CDC does so by providing counseling on, among other items, budgeting for home repairs, maintaining property, finding tenants, and filing insurance claims. The agency also refers new home owners to money-management classes at Flagship Bank.

The CDC and its many partners are moving in the right direction, as evidenced by the newfound esteem of Worcester's east side.

"I'm confident that the initiative will work out well for the community and the whole city," says Nabil M. Farooq, vice president of Flagship Bank. The member has helped revitalize other sections of Worcester, and each has changed the city for the better.

Representative James McGovern (D-MA-3rd) agrees, stating that a balanced approach will likely ensure any economic-development initiative's long-term success.

"Through innovative public-private partnerships, Worcester has begun to transform itself, particularly on the east side," he says. "I believe very strongly that we need a holistic approach to economic development. New jobs, while critical, are not enough. We also need to make sure that health-care, housing, education, transportation, and a host of other needs are met."

This article originally appeared in the Bank's Tools for Housing and Community Economic Development newsletter (issue 16, Winter 2001).