About Us
The Southeast Community Development Corporation (SECDC) was founded in 1973 as Southeast Development, Inc.(SDI), by SECO, the Southeast Community Organization. SECO was formed to empower the neighborhoods of Southeast Baltimore by organizing around common quality of life issues, the foremost being the construction of a new Interstate Highway along the waterfront of Southeast Baltimore.
SDI began its life by developing and constructing community facilities as a grocery store, but quickly began to focus on housing, becoming a steady producer of affordable housing throughout the eighties and nineties. In the late nineties, it separated from SECO and incorporated as the SECDC and began to focus on the Highlandtown community, then the second largest commercial area in Baltimore (after downtown).
Today the SECDC operates one of the premier housing counseling services in the Baltimore metropolitan area. We offer full service financial and housing counseling services with one on one counseling, evening and weekend hours, and the only bilingual staff in the metropolitan area. We serve individuals throughout the metropolitan area, and, thanks to the generous support of our founders, none of our services require a fee. We are also the only community development corporation to combine a unique set of private and public programs to focus on the revitalization of the greater Highlandtown community.
We operate a Main Street program, a Healthy Neighborhood program, and an Arts and Entertainment program to stimulate new investment and homeownership, and to improve the quality of life for our residents. Please let us know how we are doing!