Ms. S, age 65, has lived in the Pigtown neighborhood of Southwest Baltimore city since 1984. She and her late partner, George, first rented a home on Cleveland Street before moving to their current house in 1987. Pigtown is the only neighborhood Ms. S has ever called home in Baltimore, and after nearly four decades, she remains deeply connected to the community.

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Over time, her house that she affectionately called her “problem child”, fell into disrepair. She dubbed the kitchen “Pripyat Kitchen” after the abandoned Ukrainian town near Chernobyl. The floor was unsafe, the pipes leaked, the sink didn’t work, cabinet doors hung on by a single hinge, and only two electrical outlets still functioned. “It looked like a room suddenly abandoned forty years ago,” she recalled. To stay safe, she covered a hole in the floor with a falling cabinet and an orange cone to avoid falling into the basement.

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Ms. S discovered Rebuilding Together Baltimore at the Pigtown Festival. Once RTB had the funding in place to help Ms. S, the repairs began transforming the space from a health hazard into a safe, functional kitchen. “When the kitchen was done, my body felt like a tight spring that had finally released. Joy is exhausting sometimes,” said Ms. S.