CTI History

In 1965, CTI's mission was to help people help themselves out of poverty by providing advocacy, job training, pre-school education, nutrition programs and elderly volunteer activities. Later, services such as early care and education, fuel assistance and weatherization assistance were added, along with affordable housing and shelters for the homeless.

Today CTI's mission is much the same as it was in 1965. As Greater Lowell's Community Action Agency we are committed to mobilizing resources for low-income people to become self-sufficient, alleviating the effects of poverty, and assisting low-income people to participate in the decisions that affect their lives.

CTI's Deputy Executive Director Bill Lipchitz, a 35-year veteran of the agency, has written several articles on the history of CTI some of which were published in the Lowell Sun. Click Here to read his recent article.

Over the decades, CTI has developed many programs that improve the lives of low-income people. Two of the most visible and most satisfying are the development of the first two shelters for homeless families in the area and the development of 60 units of elderly and handicapped housing. CTI convened the first Greater Lowell Conference on Homelessness in the mid 1970s (a leadership tradition that continues through the SHIFT Coalition) and set about to respond to the need for a shelter for homeless families. CTI obtained state money to establish a shelter in the abandoned St. Peter’s Convent and ultimately in a former Nursing home opposite the Franco-American School on Pawtucket Street. The number of homeless families exceeded the capacity of Pawtucket House (currently Milly’s Place), so CTI established another one, Merrimack House, near by . Though names and locations have changed, these two shelters have given hundreds of homeless families a roof over their heads and hot meals to eat and help to find affordable housing and the jobs they need to pay for it.

In the late 1970’s, newly moved from Kearney Square to Dutton Street, CTI successfully applied for a $3.2 million loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to build 60 units of elderly and handicapped housing on a site found by sheer good luck in Methuen. Some of the original tenants still live there while others have passed on. Hundreds have enjoyed lives of dignity and independence thanks to CTI’s pluck at finding this site and the resources to develop it.