Video of news conference announcing $1.25 million grant for housing renewal in Rutland.
RUTLAND — Carol Tashie knows which of the neighborhood children like kale. The organic farmer raises crops outside the city but chose to live in this northwest neighborhood because of its sense of community.
Many of Tashie’s neighbors struggle with mental health, substance abuse or run-ins with the court system, the Baxter Street resident said. They also plow each other’s driveways, water each other’s plants and know each other’s pets.
“Despite our problems we’re really proud of where we live,” she said.
Gov. Peter Shumlin on Monday visited Tashie’s neighborhood to award a $1.25 million grant to the city that will be used to revitalize an area that has been stereotyped as a run-down corner of drug dealing and poverty.
After the news conference, a bulldozer knocked down a former “drug house” at 37 Pine St. where former tenants used to deal heroin, according to the Rutland police chief. The city took possession of the property for unpaid taxes.
Mayor Christopher Louras said the state grant is a capstone in a broad project he is leading to improve the city. “When some people see blighted properties, we see opportunity,” he said.
Officials said they hope the influx of public money will entice private investment in the area. Rutland is not the dump some think it is, they said.
“This governor is proud of Rutland,” said Shumlin, who made the state’s fight against opiate abuse the focal point of the last legislative session.
The state grant will pay for assessments and improvements to blighted properties. NeighborWorks of Western Vermont and the Rutland Redevelopment Authority will buy and repair up to seven buildings and help people make down payments and provide other services to encourage families to buy homes in the area, according to the governor’s office.
If a building can’t be rehabilitated, the money can be used to demolish up to four buildings and use the land for something else, “in consultation with the neighborhood,” according to the governor’s office.
Jim Baker, the chief of the Rutland Police Department, said healthy neighborhoods help to create a safe society. The city’s goal is to reduce the number of properties where the owner does not live on-site, Baker said.
The funding comes from $6.5 million Vermont received in Community Development Block Grants. The federal guidelines for the grants are designed to help people with low and moderate incomes.
The state awards the grants based on the recommendation of the Vermont Community Development Board and approval from Secretary of Commerce and Community Development Patricia Moulton.
Jennifer Hollar, deputy commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development, said Rutland received the money as the result of years of careful planning by the city and partner organizations.
