Signs of a turnaround on a troubled street
By Meghan Irons, Boston Globe Staff | May 12, 2009
A Dorchester street that has been the epicenter of foreclosures in Boston got a lift yesterday.
A crew from the PBS home improvement series "This Old House" filmed renovations at a house on Hendry Street, where Mayor Thomas M. Menino stopped by for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Menino and the city's Foreclosure Intervention Team marked the revival of the first two of four three-decker houses that had been in foreclosure on the street.
The city acquired the four Hendry Street three-deckers, a total of 12 apartments, from banks last year and sold them to Bilt-Rite Construction for development.
The other two homes, at 19 and 21 Hendry St., are scheduled to be ready for homebuyers by midsummer, the city said.
The mayor said in a statement that the city has made noticeable progress on the street, but that "we still have work to do."
By targeting Hendry Street, he said, "we have been able to make a difference in restoring our neighborhoods that have been troubled by foreclosure-related blight and crime."
Early last year, the Hendry Street area was plagued by as many as 16 foreclosed properties and a host of crime. The street had the highest concentration of foreclosed houses in the city and came to symbolize the local mortgage crisis.
Boston has had 2,300 foreclosures since late 2006, when the city's' foreclosure began work, according to the Department of Neighborhood Development.
Since then, city officials say, the city has been able to help more than 575 homeowners avert foreclosure.
