It?s not been an easy 10 years for the Patterson Park Community Development Corp.
The nonprofit group started work in the neighborhood when it was thought impossible to save the area from declining property values, fleeing residents, absentee landlords, drug dealing and prostitution.
“The statistics tell the story,” said Ed Rutkowski, executive director of the organization that buys houses, renovates the property and sells the homes at a premium, or rents the houses at affordable rates. This week, the group celebrated its 10th anniversary.
From 1990 until 2000, home ownership dropped from 66 percent to 41 percent, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The vacancy rate soared from 6 percent to 22 percent.
“In 2000, one in every four houses was uninhabited,” Rutkowski said.
In 1990, the racial makeup of the Patterson Park neighborhood was 90 percent white, according to census data. In 2000, the neighborhood was 38 percent white.
“At least 62 percent of the households left,” Rutkowski said.
But then, the turn-around happened, anda diverse mix of people started moving back into the neighborhood, buying and renting houses that the group had invested in and rehabbed.
Today, the neighborhood is a mix of ethnicities ? 40 percent black, 40 percent white and 20 percent Hispanic.
“Houses that we sold for $75,000 in the late ?90s resold for $300,000,” he said. “Houses that generally were selling for $60,000 in 1997 are selling for $250,000 and up.”
The group, Rutkowski said, gets its money the hard way ? “we earn it.” About 80 percent of its funding comes from grants and foundation. Money that it makes from the sale of houses is funneled back into the community.
“We subsidize the affordable rentals and help sponsor a number of community things. We funded about $30,000 to $40,000 for the [Patterson Park] Charter School. We fund events at Patterson Park and good organizations that don?t have the resources we have.”
Baltimore City Councilmember Jim Kraft, who not only represents the Patterson Park neighborhood but also lives on the north side of the park, said the group should be commended for its vision.
“Ten years ago, they looked at a neighborhood where no one was looking and saw a future if someone could begin to assemble a number of houses and responsibly develop them,” Kraft said. “That?s what they did.”
The group also helped build the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood, he said.
“It?s wonderful. It?s nice to see that as a community develops, even though the economic level may have risen, the diversity has been maintained, and that is critical.”
More information
» Patterson Park Community Development Corp.
2900 E. Baltimore St., Baltimore
410-732-1609
www.ppcdc.org
