The second phase of the redevelopment of a North Baltimore neighborhood is well underway. Many former residents in Barclay are reluctant to move back, which does not surprise officials. People who frequent the area of East 20th Street between Barclay and Greenmount are familiar with the sight of construction workers and heavy machinery. They’ve been around since December, working on the second phase of the Barclay Redevelopment project. It is to have 69-rental units, 30 homes for sale and a park. Officials from the city and Telesis Corporation, which is leading the project, plan to notify former residents over the next couple of months that some units will be ready in the fall. Yet they know that many chose not to return after phase one was completed in 2011.
“They’ve been settled in a new place for a number of years; in this case it would have been about four or five years that they would have been somewhere else."
Peter Engel is deputy commissioner for project finance for the city Department of Housing and Community Development.
“My personal view is that most people when they are settled don’t generally want to uproot. Whether they have a voucher or whether they are anybody else. You would really only move if there’s a reason to move and I would guess that they’ve generally become comfortable in their new communities.”
He says they haven’t done any surveys to search for answers, but that it’s not unusual that only a small percentage of residents decide to return. Catherine Stokes, director of the Telesis Baltimore office, said the company held a series of meetings with former residents to encourage them to apply for the units. But Telesis had little luck.
“Even with the housing authority and Telesis really trying to be thoughtful and trying to stage the redevelopment so that folks would move back; not everyone decided to.”
She said the company allowed some residents to stay while the new units were being built.
“In this way we could, rehab the housing intended for the existing public housing residents first and thus, minimize the need to move people out and then move them back.”
One resident who did decide to move back was Minnie Simmons – who lives in one of the new units on North Calvert Street. She has resided in the neighborhood for more than 40 years.
“I didn’t want to move out of the neighborhood because I do all of my shopping, all my banking and my church is within walking distance – I belong to Ark Baptist; 1263 North Avenue. So even my doctor’s appointment; I can walk over, catch the bus on St. Paul and go to the doctor’s.”
Simmons notes how the neighborhood has changed from when the project was first being planned in 2006.
“There used to be houses across the street when I moved here. They tore them down to make the park and the playground. And then, we are mixed now.”
Both officials for the city and Telesis say that they will try again to reach as many of the former residents of Barclay as possible to bring them back. The second phase is expected to be completed next spring.