New homes to replace Adams Street blight

Date: 1/31/2011

Jan. 31, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD — For one Adams Street resident, the demolition of two abandoned homes at 56-58 Adams St. is the end of seven years of abuse and conflict.

Bill Dusty, well known for his "Springfield Intruder" Web site, welcomed the news the city and the Hampden County Sheriff's Department have partnered in taking down the two buildings and eventually building two single family owner-occupied homes.

"I am very thankful," he told Reminder Publications.

Mayor Domenic Sarno and William M. Christofori, assistant superintendent of the Hampden County Sheriff's Office, were at the demolition site on Jan. 26 for a press event announcing the housing project.

The men explained the two homes would be funded in part by the state allocation to the city from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program and through resources provided by the Criminal Justice Organization of Hampden County, Inc. (CJO), a non-profit corporation affiliated with the Sheriff's Department.

Construction on the homes should start in the spring and Christofori said much of the work would be done by inmates as part of a retraining program. He said that there would be some work that sub-contractors would be doing such as framing, plumbing and wiring.

Sarno said that any profit made by the sale of the homes would go to back to CJO to be invested in other housing projects.

Christofori said the new housing effort not only helps rehabilitate a neighborhood, but also the offenders involved in building the homes.

The Adams Street project is part of several efforts to revive the South End neighborhood, as well as the nearby Central Street corridor in the Maple High Six Corners neighborhood, Sarno noted. Three new single-family homes recently built on Central Street have recently been sold, he explained.

Dusty said that Adams Street in the city's South End neighborhood has been a quiet street since he bought his home in 2003, with the exception of those two homes. When he first moved to the neighborhood, the homes were both rented, but were not maintained. There were numerous parties and even violence at the address.

By 2008, the homes were vacant and the yards were being used for illegal dumping. Dusty made appeals to the owner, whom he described as a "wealthy woman in Longmeadow who didn't care."

A fire in the winter in 2009 made the situation worse. Although the city made efforts to clean up the lots, the trash returned. Dusty credited City Councilor Melvin Edwards with addressing the issue.