Monday morning at the I.M. Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless, representatives from Housing and Urban Development joined U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown to kickoff National Community Development Week.
“It’s a real honor to start here,” said Linda Lanier, executive director of the Sulzbacher Center. “It feels good. We know that people’s lives change here.”
The Sulzbacher Center was chosen as the starting point for the week-long series of events because it has received numerous grants from the City’s Community Development Block Grant program.
Lanier also gave a brief update on the renovation projects — a child development center and an expanded medical facility — in the center’s future. Tentatively, a ground breaking for the child development facility has been set for mid-May.
“There won’t be room for anything else on our 2.2 acre property when we’re finished,” she said.
Doug Brown, chief of the Community Development Division of HUD, praised the efforts of the Sulzbacher Center.
“If you look at the Sulzbacher Center, you can see how simple it is to make things better,” he said. “If we work together we can continue to provide a better quality of life for people with medium to low incomes.”