BALTIMORE — Once a state-of-the-art public housing complex, Perkins Homes is now reduced to rubble with more than 500 families clearing out of the way in the name of progress.
“Everybody was moving, and I just wanted to go and not be the last one left here so that’s how that went,” said Michele McCall as she watched the demolition.
Built during World War II, the housing complex made up of 50 barrack-like buildings had become obsolete in need of massive repairs, which would have cost millions of dollars.
RELATED: Perkins Homes public housing demolition begins in Southeast Baltimore
Manning the controls on the excavator to tear down the last building?
None other than Governor Larry Hogan.
“Today’s demolish effort in our transformative Project CORE initiative will have now eliminated more than 5,000 blighted units from Baltimore City,” said Hogan.
Along with Perkins, the Somerset and Oldtown communities are part of a redevelopment, which will transform property encompassing 2,000 acres.
“It will be a community of choice, a vibrant community---new schools, new parks, restaurants,” said Housing Authority of Baltimore City President & CEO Janet Abrahams. “A walkable community that anyone with mixed income, our mixed income families can enjoy.”
While some have opted to move elsewhere to start over, Michele McCall isn’t one of them.
After 45 years at Perkins Homes, she’s ready for her new beginning where the old one left off.
“Oh, I’m coming back home. Yes. Coming back,” McCall told us. “It’s going to be beautiful.”
