The Pawtucket Citizens Development Corporation is dedicated to community realization in the Pawtucket area by providing safe, decent, affordable housing for rental and home ownership for low to moderate income families as well as through the promotion of economic and community development.

Description:
PCDC is a non-profit community development corporation, working to create affordable housing for rental and home ownership throughout Pawtucket. PCDC has focused its housing efforts on the Barton Street neighborhood of Pawtucket for the past few years, in the hopes of revitalizing this neglected section of Pawtucket. PCDC hosts a Neighborhood Revitalization coordinator, whose focus is specifically on the development and rehabilitation of the Barton Street area. PCDC also has on staff a Community Organizer who works closely with neighborhood residents, specifically the Barton Street Neighborhood Association, to help them affect positive change in their community.

PCDC stands alone as the only non-profit housing developer in Pawtucket to have produced rental and home-ownership units. Since its inception in 1989, PCDC has produced over 70 units of housing through rehabilitation and new construction. Currently, there are more than 20 units in the pre-development stages.

By the summer, PCDC, in partnership with the City of Pawtucket, will have installed a small playground that we call the “Tot Lot”, which will be the only playground in the Barton Street Neighborhood to date.

PCDC has recently started two innovative new programs to improve the quality of life in the Barton Street Neighborhood. One of these programs is RENEW (Revitalizing and Engaging Neighborhoods by Empowering Women). The main goal of this program is to eradicate prostitution in the Barton Street Neighborhood by reaching out to commercial sex workers in the area, and helping them find the resources they need including rehab, housing, food, etc.

The other new program is the Barton Street Community Garden Program. In 2004, PCDC transformed a trash and litter filled lot into a beautiful flower and vegetable garden for residents of the Barton St. Neighborhood. Last summer, PCDC’s Community Organizer brought this garden to the next level with the help of ten neighborhood children who came to the garden weekly to help maintain it. By the end of the summer, their hard work produced a beautiful, thriving garden which provided over fifty pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to families in the neighborhood as well as families in the New Hope Shelter, a local homeless shelter.

History:
PCDC began in 1989, when a group of individuals, including Brenda Clement, John Cohen and several members of the St. Vincent DePaul Association, met with Pawtucket city officials to discuss the formation of a city-wide non-profit housing corporation. Over the next few months, the group continued to reach out to the community to recruit people concerned about the deteriorating conditions of Pawtucket's neighborhoods.

In May 1989, Mayor Brian Sauralt created a task force on affordable housing whose responsibility it was to develop solutions and make recommendations on halting the deteriorating "slum-like" conditions in several areas of the city. In the spring of 1990, the Task Force presented a recommendation to form a Community Development Corporation (CDC) to combat the blight.

The Task Force decided on its own to incorporate the Pawtucket Citizens Development Corporation in April of 1990. By the winter of 1991, PCDC had entered into an agreement with The Women's Development Corporation to develop 18 units of affordable housing in the Woodlawn neighborhood.

In 1994, PCDC agreed to purchase 6 building from the Pawtucket Credit Union for its first independent project.

By October 1995, one single-family home was completed and sold, and 7 units of rental housing were made available.

PCDC completed Rhode Island's first "Lead-Safe" house in February 1996.

To date, PCDC has completed over seventy units of housing.

Contact people:

Shandi Brown, Program Coordinator, (401) 726-1173, (email) Colleen Daley Ndoye, Neighborhood Revitalization Coordinator, (401) 726-1173 x112, (email) Nancy Whit, Exectuive Director, (401) 726-1173, (email)

Address:

210 West Avenue Pawtucket, RI 02860 (See a map)

Directions:

Please call 726-1173 for directions.

Miscellaneous Information

Handicap accessible?
	Yes
Interests Served:
	Solutions for Children, Youth, Families, Building Adult & Neighborhood Independence
Does your agency accept court-appointed volunteers?
	Yes