Posted on Mon, Mar. 01, 2004
High Hopes For Riverview
Trip to Atlanta gives Riverview residents as well as area business leaders a first-hand look at what HUD revitalization efforts have done for three public housing communities
BY ERIN SIMPSON
Staff Writer
In 1974, when Dovie Newell lived in the Atlanta public housing complex now known as Centennial Place, the center wasn't made up of townhouse-style apartments with two pools, a fitness center and a new elementary school and YMCA.
"It got kind of raw," she said. "You couldn't sit on your porch. You was always ducking bullets. Young men and women were getting killed."
In 1996, with HOPE VI funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the complex was torn down and rebuilt -- revitalized in HUD terms. New economic development, including a Holiday Inn Express, surrounds the mixed-income housing center, which provides public housing rates and normal monthly rents of $839 to $1,575.
Forty percent of the renters are public-housing assisted, while the other 60 percent get low-income tax credits or pay full rent.
This is one of the models for Riverview Apartments in Phenix City. The Boulevard Group, a private consulting firm, helped coordinate the revitalization of Centennial Place and other public housing complexes across the country.
Local groups are joining forces to redevelop the Phenix City riverfront. Columbus is working on whitewater rafting possibilities, with about half the takeout points on the Phenix City side of the Chattahoochee River.
The newly formed East Alabama Riverfront Development group, made up of local politicians, business leaders and others interested in the community, is working with Boulevard to try to change the area around Riverview, located on prime riverfront property downtown.
Boulevard took the riverfront group, members of the Housing Authority and Riverview residents on a bus trip Friday to see what Riverview could be, if the authority works with HUD and the riverfront group.
"Our goal is to introduce ideas and topics to you for Phenix City," said Doug Faust, vice president of Boulevard.
The second stop on the trip was Columbia Colony, a senior housing complex. Amenities at the three-story center include a movie theater, cardio and weight training rooms, a beauty salon, doctor's office, library and laundry. The regular monthly rents range from $555 to $775.
The new mixed-income communities have stringent rules. All applicants undergo a criminal background check; if anyone in the family has been convicted of a felony, the family is denied. Criminal activity, including drug use, warrants eviction.
All residents must also either work or be in school or a job-training program, many of which are sponsored on-site. The elderly, retirees and disabled are exempt.
The last trip was to The Villages at East Lake, previously East Lake Meadows, dubbed "Little Vietnam" for its $30 million annual drug trade and many violent deaths.
East Lake, located on a golf course, is 50 percent public-housing assisted families and 50 percent renters who pay $815 to $1,425 each month. There is now a junior Olympic-sized pool, two golf courses, a Junior Golf Academy, tennis courts and a charter school on the premises.
Charles R. Drew Charter School was the first charter school in Atlanta. Attached is a YMCA, which the students use for physical education. Crime is down 94 percent in the new complex, and crime in surrounding neighborhoods is down 77 percent. A new Publix was recently built nearby, the community's first full grocery store in 40 years.
Reactions differ
Chuck Roberts, executive director of the Phenix City Housing Authority, said the apartments were beautiful. He said the authority would have to put in an application with HUD to demolish any buildings and rebuild.
Sixteen Riverview buildings are currently undergoing a $4.6 million renovation; the 50-year-old apartments will stand, but the insides are being made slightly roomier, and washer and dryer connectors and air-conditioning are being added.
Roberts said he doesn't think that should stop, and those building shouldn't be torn down to revitalize the entire area. "I think I've put a lot of money in this. Four million dollars is a lot of money to throw away," he said. "I don't think you ought to tear down the work we're doing up there."
Faust has said that leaving part of the old-style buildings would endanger the entire project. When people can choose between brand-new modern buildings, or remodeled public housing, no one will want to live in remodeled buildings, he said. Another advantage of revitalizing the entire area is to get rid of the stigma of public housing, since no one in the mixed-income communities knows who is paying what.
"I like what we've done there so far," Roberts said. "Maybe they can tie ours into theirs."
Odelle Franklin, a Riverview resident, also thinks things should be left the same, but only for one reason -- she doesn't want to move. Franklin, 67, has been living there for 23 years. "It's the move I'd hate," she said. "If it's left to me, I'd leave it like it is."
Two of her friends, and neighbors, disagree.
"If the apartments could be like those up there, I'd love it to death," said Louise Daniel. Daniel, 70, has lived in Riverview for 24 years. "They can tear it down and build another and that'd be fine."
She said she liked the roomy apartments at Centennial Place and East Lake. "My table is in the living room" at Riverview, she said.
Jessie Johnson, 80, has lived there for 26 years. She's also concerned about moving, but likes the idea of new apartments. "It's roomy and you aren't cramped up tight," she said. She hopes she could stay on site while the new ones are built and then move directly into them. Many times, residents are relocated for a year and then brought back, and Johnson said she wouldn't like that.
Daniel said she wouldn't care. "I'd move in a heartbeat."
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Contact Erin Simpson at (706) 571-8586 or esimpson@ledger-enquirer.com