As the College and city collaborate to preserve and restore the buildings of
the neighborhood known as College Park, Gretchel Tyson and a group of Union volunteers are
working to ensure the well-being of the neighborhood's greatest asset – its
people.
Tyson, the College's director of affirmative action and community outreach, began
working last fall to relocate residents from homes that were to be renovated. She was
joined by a group of Union employees eager to help ease the transition for residents. The
USI volunteers include Don Arnold Jr., Donna Davenport, Kelly Herrington, Jim Meyer, Terry
Miltner, Rich Patierne, George Schiller and Bob Tomack.
The volunteers assist Tyson at community meetings and in distributing fliers. But they
are most valuable, Tyson says, when they accompany her on visits to ease the concerns of
neighbors who are facing relocation. “They help them to understand that we're
not going to push them out or evict them,” Tyson says.
Chief among concerns of nearly every family is easing the disruption to children by
keeping them in the same school district whenever possible. In some cases, Tyson has
worked with district officials to arrange to bus children to the school they were
attending before their move.
One family with five children has moved into a rental home for $550 per month; they had
been paying $900 for an apartment. Another woman, an elderly resident, said she hated to
leave the home she had lived in for so long; with some help from Tyson and the volunteers,
she eventually found a new home she likes.
Besides assisting with finding new homes for families, the College relieves them of two
months rent, and pays for moving expenses.
So far, 17 families, with a total of 24 children, have moved into new housing to their
liking. Another nine families are to be relocated.
“I'm a Schenectady native and I used to play in this area as a child,”
says Davenport, who has worked with the relocation of several families. “I wish there
was more that I could do.”