SDS to Expand Roxbury Center

The Students for a Democratic Society plant to turn their small eight-month-old Dudley Street Action Center in Roxbury into a full-time center for community political organization starting this summer.

The Action Center, which now has five full-time workers and ten part-time student volunteers, will expand three existing programs to focus local attention on the problems of urban redevelopment, welfare, and schools.

The Action Center will organize residents to demand that the Boston Redevelopment Authority provide good housing for immediate occupancy when this summer's urban renewal begins. Seventy-five per cent of lower Roxbury was slated for demolition beginning in July, and the shortage of inexpensive housing for those displaced will be acute. In a second project, the Action Center will organize a local group, Mothers For Adequate Welfare, in a drive to publicize the rights of welfare recipients. The Center will also continue a door-to-door survey seeking suggestions to improve schools in the already-integrated districts of Roxbury.

SDS is now sorting applications to set between 15 and 25 college students who will live in a Roxbury housing project this summer and staff the Action Center. Those selected will be encouraged to take at least a semester off ensure the continuation of the summer programs.