An abandoned village in south Alabama is reportedly set to become a neighborhood for homeless veterans — breathing new life into a small community that never recovered from industrial flight in the late 20th century.
The 22-acre Cotton Mill Village was once the center of Prichard, Alabama, a suburb of Mobile held in high esteem by the shipbuilding and paper mill industries.
But decades of factory closures, poverty, job losses and unemployment brought the region to its knees and left it in ruins.
“It’s a booming industry because of the industrial businesses that are here – but when those industrial businesses leave, you see the population decrease, and … people start to leave,” Rodney Clements, founder of the Prosperity Community Development Council and vice president of the Veterans Corps, told Fox 10 News.
But Clements – who is leading the project – says things are about to change for the “diamond in the rough” ghost town.
There are nearly 60 houses and 86 lots in the village, Clements said. And he knows about 2,500 veterans who need protection.
“They want to get them out of the facility, and they definitely want to put them in single-family residences to make life easier to live,” Clements told the outlet.
An Alabama town has banded together to revitalize a long-abandoned neighborhood that will eventually provide housing for homeless vets. WALA/Fox10 The 22-acre site was once home to Cotton Mill Village, home to workers for the local shipbuilding industry and paper mills.WALA/Fox10
But the Prichard native said it’s not just another development — he wants it to include parks and other features to make it “a fulfilling community that gives back, really,” Clements said.
And he’s working with several others — including working with nonprofits and general contractors from Mobile — to restore crumbling homes to their former glory.
“It’s just a total community effort,” said Clements, who is also a veteran.
Workers have already renovated the first home — and it only took a month, according to Fox.
But it was abandoned after the area’s industrial base declined in the latter part of the 20th century. WALA/Musang10
“That first home will be a true testament to what this potential community can offer,” Clements said.
“We want to build and renovate [houses] back to the way they looked before they were damaged,” said Tyrone Pettway, general contractor for the project and CEO of Kingdome Renovations in Mobile.
“We know we won’t be able to do everything like that, but for the most part we will do it on as many houses as we can,” he continued.
Now workers are trying to restore dozens of homes for the more than 2,500 homeless vets living in the area. WALA/Fox10 They also want to include parks and other recreational areas so the community can become a “fulfilling” neighborhood. WALA/Musang10
“Let this be an example of what can happen when a community comes together and knows that there is strength in unity, and we are better together.”
Clements said the next step of the project may involve construction and infrastructure improvements – the cost could be around $17 million.
Similar efforts around the country have restored ancient residences or other buildings for use by homeless vets, such as when volunteers restored an Ohio home slated for demolition and gave it to a veteran earlier this year, according to News 5 Cleveland.
But it can be difficult to find restoration projects that are carried out on a large scale.
But for Clements, the effort to restore what was once a “dark, dreary, abandoned and forgotten place” is worth it.
“The city of Prichard … I was born and raised here,” Clements said. “So everything here is home for me.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
