Nuestra CDC concentrates its service within the Boston neighborhoods of Roxbury and North Dorchester in order to alleviate the hardships that low-income people in disadvantaged neighborhoods traditionally face. Our primary service area is densely populated by immigrants and people of color: according to data from the 2000 Census, 48.8% of residents of the Roxbury/North Dorchester area identify as Black or African-American, while 21.3% identify as Hispanic. These residents belong to a demographic facing a lengthy and difficult list of obstacles. The 2000 Census reports that 24.3% of individuals in this area live below the poverty line, as compared with the 19.5% citywide rate. Beyond these immediate financial difficulties, our residents struggle with many other socioeconomic factors that prevent them from breaking out of the poverty cycle. According to the Census, one-third of Roxbury residents have less than a high school education, have limited employable skills, rely on government benefits and face significant childcare responsibilities.
Our revised model of operation is significantly focused on the Dacia Foreclosure Intervention Target (FIT) area, which lies along the Blue Hill Avenue corridor from Quincy Street north to Dudley Street. As identified by the City of Boston, this community is one of three areas in the city most drastically hit by the wave of foreclosures. In the Howard-Dacia neighborhood alone (just one of several neighborhoods in the Dacia FIT area), 75 families inhabiting 33 properties were forced out of their homes by foreclosure between January 2007 and August 2008. Currently, 121 properties across the FIT area are at various stages in the foreclosure process; this puts over 300 additional families at risk for displacement.
