SitemapFighting blight one house at a time, volunteers helped the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) board up 20 vacant homes on the city’s north side.
The volunteer effort is YNDC’s way of honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
The event’s organizers say that boarding up the homes is an important part of making the neighborhood a safer place.
“We’re boarding up the houses to secure them to protect them for the elements, to protect neighborhood kids from going in and out of them,” said YNDC Neighborhood Stabilization Director Jack Daugherty.
Volunteer Derrick McDowell said getting involved was an easy decision.
“Your heart goes out, because you can still see the idea of a family still living there. When you look at the community that surrounds these homes, it’s still here, staying, sticking around. Our job is to really give hope,” he said.
YNDC plans on boarding up more abandoned properties. On February 20, the organization is going to have another work day on the south side of Youngstown.
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