Shoulder to Shoulder, Volunteers in N.J. Are Rebuilding a City--Block by Block

Hundreds of abandoned homes are crumbling reminders of the city’s industrial decline and targets for arsonists and drug dealers, but volunteers are rebuilding--block by block.

A half-dozen grass-roots groups have projects to rehabilitate some of more than 3,500 vacant dwellings, an enormous task that residents of blighted neighborhoods say is making a difference.

“Nobody would have thought these houses could be brought back,” said Herb Clayton, who has lived on Jackson Street for 14 years. “They were empty, almost ready to fall down.”

More than 10% of housing units in the city of 87,500 are vacant.

“It’s a challenge,” said Sister Peg Hynes, president of Heart of Camden, a nonprofit housing group.

The group, an outgrowth of the Sacred Heart Church, has rehabilitated more than 50 homes since 1984.

The city began its downward spiral in the 1950s, when residents began fleeing to suburbs. Between 1950 and 1980, the city lost nearly one-third of its population.

“We had a lot of vacant buildings left,” said Thomas A. Roberts, executive director of the city’s Redevelopment Agency. “They were eventually abandoned and the city came to own them.”

The Heart of Camden is slowly refurbishing a five-block area in south Camden, just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. Most of the homes, vacant for years, require extensive repairs.

“We really have to gut them and start all over again,” Hynes said. “It takes a lot more muscle and a lot more time.”

It takes months to replace walls, install sprinkler systems and upgrade the properties to meet current building codes, Hynes said.

Freshly painted row houses line Holcain Street, a narrow alley once filled with trash. A neighbor lovingly cares for a fenced-in garden park.

The Heart of Camden acquires abandoned properties from the city and sells rehabilitated homes to low-income families at minimal cost.

“We’re not in this to make money,” Hynes said, noting the annual income for most families is under $10,000. “We’re in this to help families find homes.”

Eligible families receive interest-free mortgages with no down payment required, Hynes said. The average monthly mortgage payment is about $200 and includes taxes, she said.

Despite the scattered success of volunteers, critics say the city should play a larger role in rebuilding neighborhoods and demolishing vacant, dilapidated homes.

“They say we are building Camden block by block, but I think we are losing this city block by block,” said Maribel Roman, a member of the Camden Churches Organized for People, which has asked the city to demolish or rehabilitate 58 abandoned properties by the end of the year.