13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Fountain Square neighborhood targeted for renewal

Fountain Square neighborhood targeted for renewal

Indianapolis - A struggling Indianapolis neighborhood is getting a big boost Tuesday.

The project impacts more than 24 homes south of Prospect Street between Harlan and Saint Peter Street just east of Fountain Square.

Residents call it a neighborhood in transition. There are plenty of boarded up, abandoned homes. Crime and vandalism have also caused problems for residents.

On Tuesday, residents learned that their neighborhood is being targeted for an extreme community makeover in September 2010. Hundreds of volunteers will arrive to build ten new homes in five days and rehab many others.

The project is part of the Millard Fuller Legacy Build 2010 program. Fuller was the man who started Habitat for Humanity.

"Many times we go into a neighborhood and we build one home which affects one family, and we turn around and we leave," said Chuck Vogt, Fuller Center for Housing. "This time we have an opportunity to clean up a whole neighborhood, do a whole street, not just build one house and leave, which can affect every family, whether they're getting a new house or whether they already live here. This, to me, is one of the most exciting things that we can possibly do."

They'll do it with volunteer labor and cash donations. Paul Whiteman, a local resident, welcomes the help.

"We can't do it alone...but 350 people sure can," he said.

Homeowner George Purvis is optimistic, but still has some concerns. He says replacing the boarded-up fire traps with new affordable homes is a good idea as long as they're filled with responsible homeowners.

"I think it could do a lot of good. I hope that they use their brain when it comes to putting good people in the houses when they're done. I think that's where our problem lies around here. They can fix the houses up, make them nice, but if they don't put somebody who doesn't take care of them in them, they're gonna go right back to where they [were]," he said. "Someone's gotta do a lot of follow-up for a long time or it will end up just like it is now."

The Fuller Center for Housing will dedicate hundreds of homes around the world next September. Indianapolis is getting a lot of attention because it is the international host city of the program.