From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Hope VI Project Double-Crosses Oakland Renters
Low-Income Oakland Renters Are Being Displaced By Hope VI Projects!
Hope VI Project Double-Crosses Oakland Renters
By Lynda Carson October 22, 2006
Oakland CA - A developer's recent glossy sales brochure paints the Coliseum Gardens housing development in East Oakland as being the next best thing, since chocolate milk. Being hailed as the most comprehensive development to date for one of Oakland's largest nonprofit housing developers, an indepth look beyond the hype and propaganda being used to measure the success of the project reveals that only 4 out of the 178 low-income families displaced by the development, actually managed to return to the newly rebuilt housing complex that was recently christened as Lion Creek Crossings.
Documents reveal that as an effort to reduce violence and drug trafficking within and around the Coliseum and Lockwood communities of Oakland, the HOPE VI program enabled the Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) to use nearly $61 million in federal funding as a major Police Action designed to displace Oakland's low-income communities from the above mentioned locations.
These projects are only a small part of what is known as the Oakland Coliseum Redevelopment Area, which is approximately 11 square miles in size, extending from 22nd Ave., all the way to the San Leandro City limits, and is located between E. 14th St., and the Oakland Estuary/Airport.
The OHA's Board of Commissioners approved the selection of the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC), the Related Companies of California (Related Companies), and Chambers General Construction as co-developers of the Coliseum Gardens public housing site during its board meeting on October 21, 2002. As partners in the development project, the OHA owns the land, and the developers own the buildings.
As a result of the OHA approval, local nonprofit housing developer EBALDC and Related Companies, LLC., out of New York City, created Creekside Housing Partners, L.P., to take control of Oakland's public housing property at the Coliseum Gardens site.
After the eviction of 178 families and the demolition of their 178 public housing units during 2004, Creekside Housing Partners (CHP) moved as quickly as possible to rebuild and finish off "phase 1," of their massive gentrification project. Phase 1 of the development is managed by Related Companies, the tenants pay their rents to the New York based company, and during the past 6 months the developers have moved people into 115 newly rebuilt housing units at the development.
Twima Early works at the management office of Related Companies located at Lion Creek Crossings and was eager to help shed some light on whats been going on at the newly privatized public housing site in East Oakland.
In an October 18 interview, Twima Early said, "During the past 6 months, we have completed phase 1 of our project and moved people into 115 housing units at our new development. Out of the 178 families who were originally displaced by our project, the OHA sent us a list of 13 families who were eligible to move back into this location, and only 4 of those families actually moved into our new development."
"It seemed odd that the Housing Authority would only allow 13 families to move back into this location, and I can't explain why so few were allowed to return," said Early.
When Randy Shaw of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic learned how few of the original public housing tenants that were actually allowed to move back into the Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek housing development, he said, "The Hope VI program has once again proved to be the major cause of the displacement of low-income people. I've never heard of numbers so skewed before in regards to the displacement of families who were promised that the Hope VI project would be beneficial to them."
Since 1994, Oakland officials and the Federal Government have targeted Oakland's poor with nearly $84 million in federal funding through the Hope VI program, in an effort to displace the low-income communities from such housing projects known as Lockwood Gardens, Chestnut Court, Westwood Gardens, and the Coliseum Gardens. The above mentioned funds do not include all the other funding sources that have been used to dump the poor from their public housing units, in the name of the Hope VI program.
The privatization of Oakland's public housing units have been occurring at a rapid pace. When wealthy billionaire Stephen M. Ross, CEO of Related Companies, teamed up with local nonprofit housing developer EBALDC to re-develop the Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek housing complex, it became apparent that the developers made out much better than the displaced families did.
Carlos Castellanos of EBALDC is involved in the Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek development, and when I asked how did this project benefit the families who used to reside there or how is the City of Oakland benefitting from the displacement of so many families, Castellanos said, "These are loaded questions and not something that I want to talk about. I think that a lot of those tenants did not really want to move back, and I think that you really need to talk to the Housing Authority to find out what happened to all of those families."
Vivian Haine resided in a public housing unit near the Coliseum Gardens site, and said, "About a year ago, Kim Boyd the site manager where I resided at, told me that I'm lucky to be living here even if there is no money for repairs at this building, because they did'nt have enough funding to finish off the project at Coliseum Gardens, and most of the evicted tenants had no where to go. I believe that many of the families displaced from the Coliseum Gardens development could'nt find any housing to move into and may have become homeless," Haine said.
Records show that on June 24, 2006, the OHA's Board of Commissioners approved the use of market rate rents in its Project-Based Section 8 program at the Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek development, to cover a $600,000 funding shortfall after the EBALDC/Related Companies claimed that they needed more money to complete phase 3 of the project.
A Sept. 19, 2006, OHA memo mentions that EBALDC/Related Companies are co-developing the rental portion at Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek Crossings, which will include 157 units of public housing. The total number of rental units, including public housing, now planned is approximately 440 units, plus another 28 units of for-sale housing which are planned to be developed by Chambers Construction Company.
With the demolition of 178 public housing units by the developers, and only 157 public housing units being rebuilt at the Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek Crossings housing site, theres been a net loss of 21 public housing units at this location.
Despite the fact that Stephen M. Ross, CEO of Related Companies, is so wealthy that during 2004 he gave away $100 million to the University of Michigan, the OHA and City of Oakland, continue to funnel millions of dollars to the EBALDC/Related Companies partnership, in an effort to privatize part of Oakland's public housing program in East Oakland.
Since it's inception, the Hope VI program has resulted in the demolition of more than 120,000 public housing units across the nation, and less than 12% of the displaced families managed to gain entry back into the locations they were evicted from. In order to make way for the new housing projects being developed that resulted in the privatization of the nation's public housing properties, around 30% of the displaced families are given Section 8 vouchers, 49% are moved into other public housing units, and most of the rest often end up losing their housing assistance.
Lynda Carson may be contacted at; tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com
By Lynda Carson October 22, 2006
Oakland CA - A developer's recent glossy sales brochure paints the Coliseum Gardens housing development in East Oakland as being the next best thing, since chocolate milk. Being hailed as the most comprehensive development to date for one of Oakland's largest nonprofit housing developers, an indepth look beyond the hype and propaganda being used to measure the success of the project reveals that only 4 out of the 178 low-income families displaced by the development, actually managed to return to the newly rebuilt housing complex that was recently christened as Lion Creek Crossings.
Documents reveal that as an effort to reduce violence and drug trafficking within and around the Coliseum and Lockwood communities of Oakland, the HOPE VI program enabled the Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) to use nearly $61 million in federal funding as a major Police Action designed to displace Oakland's low-income communities from the above mentioned locations.
These projects are only a small part of what is known as the Oakland Coliseum Redevelopment Area, which is approximately 11 square miles in size, extending from 22nd Ave., all the way to the San Leandro City limits, and is located between E. 14th St., and the Oakland Estuary/Airport.
The OHA's Board of Commissioners approved the selection of the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC), the Related Companies of California (Related Companies), and Chambers General Construction as co-developers of the Coliseum Gardens public housing site during its board meeting on October 21, 2002. As partners in the development project, the OHA owns the land, and the developers own the buildings.
As a result of the OHA approval, local nonprofit housing developer EBALDC and Related Companies, LLC., out of New York City, created Creekside Housing Partners, L.P., to take control of Oakland's public housing property at the Coliseum Gardens site.
After the eviction of 178 families and the demolition of their 178 public housing units during 2004, Creekside Housing Partners (CHP) moved as quickly as possible to rebuild and finish off "phase 1," of their massive gentrification project. Phase 1 of the development is managed by Related Companies, the tenants pay their rents to the New York based company, and during the past 6 months the developers have moved people into 115 newly rebuilt housing units at the development.
Twima Early works at the management office of Related Companies located at Lion Creek Crossings and was eager to help shed some light on whats been going on at the newly privatized public housing site in East Oakland.
In an October 18 interview, Twima Early said, "During the past 6 months, we have completed phase 1 of our project and moved people into 115 housing units at our new development. Out of the 178 families who were originally displaced by our project, the OHA sent us a list of 13 families who were eligible to move back into this location, and only 4 of those families actually moved into our new development."
"It seemed odd that the Housing Authority would only allow 13 families to move back into this location, and I can't explain why so few were allowed to return," said Early.
When Randy Shaw of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic learned how few of the original public housing tenants that were actually allowed to move back into the Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek housing development, he said, "The Hope VI program has once again proved to be the major cause of the displacement of low-income people. I've never heard of numbers so skewed before in regards to the displacement of families who were promised that the Hope VI project would be beneficial to them."
Since 1994, Oakland officials and the Federal Government have targeted Oakland's poor with nearly $84 million in federal funding through the Hope VI program, in an effort to displace the low-income communities from such housing projects known as Lockwood Gardens, Chestnut Court, Westwood Gardens, and the Coliseum Gardens. The above mentioned funds do not include all the other funding sources that have been used to dump the poor from their public housing units, in the name of the Hope VI program.
The privatization of Oakland's public housing units have been occurring at a rapid pace. When wealthy billionaire Stephen M. Ross, CEO of Related Companies, teamed up with local nonprofit housing developer EBALDC to re-develop the Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek housing complex, it became apparent that the developers made out much better than the displaced families did.
Carlos Castellanos of EBALDC is involved in the Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek development, and when I asked how did this project benefit the families who used to reside there or how is the City of Oakland benefitting from the displacement of so many families, Castellanos said, "These are loaded questions and not something that I want to talk about. I think that a lot of those tenants did not really want to move back, and I think that you really need to talk to the Housing Authority to find out what happened to all of those families."
Vivian Haine resided in a public housing unit near the Coliseum Gardens site, and said, "About a year ago, Kim Boyd the site manager where I resided at, told me that I'm lucky to be living here even if there is no money for repairs at this building, because they did'nt have enough funding to finish off the project at Coliseum Gardens, and most of the evicted tenants had no where to go. I believe that many of the families displaced from the Coliseum Gardens development could'nt find any housing to move into and may have become homeless," Haine said.
Records show that on June 24, 2006, the OHA's Board of Commissioners approved the use of market rate rents in its Project-Based Section 8 program at the Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek development, to cover a $600,000 funding shortfall after the EBALDC/Related Companies claimed that they needed more money to complete phase 3 of the project.
A Sept. 19, 2006, OHA memo mentions that EBALDC/Related Companies are co-developing the rental portion at Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek Crossings, which will include 157 units of public housing. The total number of rental units, including public housing, now planned is approximately 440 units, plus another 28 units of for-sale housing which are planned to be developed by Chambers Construction Company.
With the demolition of 178 public housing units by the developers, and only 157 public housing units being rebuilt at the Coliseum Gardens/Lion Creek Crossings housing site, theres been a net loss of 21 public housing units at this location.
Despite the fact that Stephen M. Ross, CEO of Related Companies, is so wealthy that during 2004 he gave away $100 million to the University of Michigan, the OHA and City of Oakland, continue to funnel millions of dollars to the EBALDC/Related Companies partnership, in an effort to privatize part of Oakland's public housing program in East Oakland.
Since it's inception, the Hope VI program has resulted in the demolition of more than 120,000 public housing units across the nation, and less than 12% of the displaced families managed to gain entry back into the locations they were evicted from. In order to make way for the new housing projects being developed that resulted in the privatization of the nation's public housing properties, around 30% of the displaced families are given Section 8 vouchers, 49% are moved into other public housing units, and most of the rest often end up losing their housing assistance.
Lynda Carson may be contacted at; tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
I know that IndyMedia is for one-sided, distorted "articles" about current events, but this is really ridiculous. First, Coliseum Gardens was notorious for its dangerous atmosphere and dilapidated facilities. Second, you have no idea what happened to the tenants who left years ago - you IMPLY that they are no longer housed, but you don't know that. Accordingly to your (uncited) statistics at the end of the article, 80% of "displaced" tenants do receive assistance. The 20% left probably were able to get unsubsidized housing. In any event, your statistics are unreliable and not from Oakland. Besides being a gigantic improvement to the environment and the neighborhood, the new Coliseum Gardens has MORE low-income housing units than the crummy building it replaced.
The tenants' union is ill-informed and deeply conservative. The immensely successful Hope VI and Coliseum Gardens efforts provide more, and high-quality, homes for the low-income. The fact that it's new, and partially funded by market-rate housing (promoting economic integration), is your real problem - any change is bad, right? Even if it's to build more housing, higher-quality housing, and economically-integrated housing.
The tenants' union is ill-informed and deeply conservative. The immensely successful Hope VI and Coliseum Gardens efforts provide more, and high-quality, homes for the low-income. The fact that it's new, and partially funded by market-rate housing (promoting economic integration), is your real problem - any change is bad, right? Even if it's to build more housing, higher-quality housing, and economically-integrated housing.
For more information:
http://futureoakland.blogspot.com
[THE HOPE VI NIGHTMARE]
---Privatizing Our Public Housing---
Public Housing in the USA and Elsewhere...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Public housing or project homes is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Although the common goal is to maintain affordable housing, the details of the arrangements differ between countries, and so does the terminology.
1 Australia
2 France
3 Germany
4 Netherlands
5 Ireland
6 Israel
7 Hong Kong
8 New Zealand
9 Singapore
10 Sweden
11 United Kingdom
12 Spain
13 United States and Canada
14 See also
*************
---HOPE VI FACTS---
More than 120000 units of Public Housing have been demolished under HOPE VI since its inception.
Less than 12% of tenants displaced from a Hope VI project are allowed to move back into the newly rebuilt housing units, that replaced the public housing units lost by demolitions.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
---Buildings & Apartments Are Not Notorious---
Corporations Are Notorious!
[EBALDC and Related Companies, LLC., created Creekside Housing Partners, L.P., to take control of Oakland's public housing property in East Oakland at the Coliseum Gardens site, now known as Lion Creek Crossings. Chambers Construction will develop the homeownership portion at Lion Creek Crossings with EBALDC and The Related Company jointly responsible for the apartments.]
---Lion Creek Crossing (Coliseum Garden) Now Renting---
http://www.ebaldc.org/realestate_dev.html
From EBALDC Website:
The Oakland Housing Authority received a HOPE VI grant to replace its 178 notorious Coliseum Garden apartments with a mixed income development of over 350 apartments and approximately 28 homes for sale. EBALDC assembled a development team, which includes The Related Company of California and Chambers Construction to work with the housing authority. Chambers Construction will develop the homeownership portion with EBALDC and The Related Company jointly responsible for the apartments. The development will surround a revitalized 5 acre City Park and Lion creek, which will also be restored by the city. The first phase of this development includes 115 apartments and 7,500 square feet of space for community services.
Click below for photos and EBALDC contact number...
http://www.ebaldc.org/lion_creek.html
This phase is under construction with a second phase of 146 apartments and another 7,500 square feet scheduled to start late in 2005. Community services anticipated include a Head Start Child Care Center, youth and after school programs, health programs, career counseling and business development opportunities. A third phase is being planned with over a hundred family apartments and townhouses that will overlook the restored Lion creek and city park.
These brand new Lion Creek Crossing apartments are ready for occupants. Contact EBALDC today at (510) 287-5353 for details....
*************
[Hope VI Program Kills Communities Of Color]
Public Housing Redevelopment Sparks Multi-City Protest & Lawsuit
By Christopher Tidmore, Political Columnist
July 3, 2006
On last Tuesday, at ten o'clock in the morning, in three separate cities, New Orleanians protested the decision to demolish 5000 public housing buildings in the Crescent City and demanded the right of immediate return to those properties of the former residents.
The demonstrations led to the filing of a civil rights lawsuit later that afternoon alleging that the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are preventing low-income black families from returning to the city.
The protest and the subsequent lawsuit comes in the wake of the decision of the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish St. Bernard, C.J Peete, B.W. Cooper and Lafitte housing developments and replace them with 'mixed-income" housing, a combination of public housing, rental housing and single-family homes. The public housing properties have been fenced off and shuttered in the months after Katrina.
This protest followed a similar gathering on Saturday June 18th in the Garden District. At that demonstration, housing residents and activists charged that "mixed-income" housing provides too few units for low-income people. They cited as an example, The St. Thomas Housing Development which in 2000 was demolished and replaced by HRs River Garden. Before the demolition, St. Thomas was home to approximately 900 public housing families. Only 200 units located in the River Gardens are now allocated to public housing residents, according to Housing activist Elizabeth Cook.
"We are tired of seeing our neighborhoods demolished and replaced by housing for wealthier people", Pamela Mahogany, resident of the St. Bernard Housing Development who is trying to return home, told Weekly.
"By tearing down developments you're not giving me the choice to come back home to New Orleans, where I was forced to leave," said Cherlynn Gaynor, 42, who grew up in the Lafitte.
Click below for full report...
http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20060703b
*************
[[[For almost every resident in a new HOPE VI low-income housing unit, a past public housing resident has been evicted.]]]
Hope VI: HUD’s Program of False Hope
False Hope
Two main flaws inherent in the reasoning of HUD officials and others who support HOPE VI.
First, HOPE VI immediately displaces the residents of existing housing units wherever such projects are undertaken. The initial phase of the initiative is to destroy a significant number of existing housing projects. The evicted residents receive no meaningful compensation for this displacement and are relocated to other public housing units or left to their own devices to scrounge for any available private housing. Either way, HOPE VI imposes substantial costs on those families and individuals who are presumably supposed to be helped by HUD’s programs.
Click below for more...
http://www.acton.org/publicat/randl/article.php?id=436
*************
[THE HOPE VI NIGHTMARE IN DETAIL]
New Report on HOPE VI:
HOPE Unseen: Voices from the Other Side
http://www.communitychange.org/issues/housing/publications/?page=hopeiv
HOPE VI gets a lot of favorable coverage in the media. However, too often, only one side of the HOPE VI story is told. Usually, the genuine voices of most public housing residents affected by HOPE VI get edited out of the story.
Local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), the media, and HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) often give the impression that everyone benefits from the HOPE VI program. There is a sense that every public housing resident either gets a nice new townhouse or the opportunity to move into a nice apartment using a housing voucher. However, most of the residents interviewed for this study had different experiences.
Download the report below. Printed version will be available late September, 2003.
HOPE Unseen (full report, 108 pages, MS Word)
Hope Unseen (Executive Summary, 18 pages, MS Word)
Report available in sections, for quicker downloading. (MS Word)
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Executive Summary
A Net Loss of Public Housing Units Affordable to Low-Income Families
Deception Regarding Reoccupancy of the Revitalized Public Housing Property
Challenges with Resident Relocation
HOPE VI and the Housing Voucher Program
Other Harmful Impacts Experienced with HOPE VI
Has HOPE VI Provided a Better Living Situation for Residents?
Were the Public Housing Properties “Severely Distressed?”
Barriers to Accessing or Effectively Utilizing Community and Supportive Services
Challenges to Effective Resident Participation in Grant Planning and Implementation
Appendix A -- Description of the Seven HOPE VI Sites
Appendix B -- Definition of “Severely Distressed”
Appendix C -- Analysis of HOPE VI grantees that may be engaged in activities worthy of further examination and, possibly, replication in the areas of replacement housing and reoccupancy
http://www.communitychange.org/issues/housing/publications/?page=hopeiv
***********
[Whta's Gone Wrong With Hope VI In Seattle?]
---An Indepth Look At The Hope VI Program---
Architecture and HOPE VI
Building Housing or Barriers to Housing?
http://www.zipcon.com/~jvf4119/hopeVIjohn.htm
This glowing AIA description of an award-winning Public Housing redevelopment doesn’t mention that of the 462 units destroyed, only 297 were built in their place, of which only 185 were Public Housing, producing a net loss of 60 percent in Public Housing units.[2] The article also doesn’t mention the federal subsidy commitment that vanished forever with the lost units. Nor does it explore what happened to the displaced tenants and those on the waiting lists. Not to mention that, as one former resident of the community said, the whole place “could have been renovated. They had [previously] modernized the kitchens and bathrooms. They had put in new windows, screens, and screen doors. They had put in a new boiler and thermostats. They were good, steady buildings.”[3]
The same pattern of Public Housing demolition, accompanied by a steady stream of accolades from trade and professional organizations and mainstream media, has been occurring nationwide as the result of a housing “revitalization” program called HOPE VI. While the “HOPE” in HOPE VI stands for “Home Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere”, the program as it is being implemented will produce a nationwide net loss of over 50,000 Public Housing units once affordable to low-income families desperately in need of this resource.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, in 1992, the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) and a number of other City and County agencies conducted a series of charrettes on the larger Public Housing garden communities in the area. The results were summarized in a report entitled “Breaking Down the Barriers”[4]. This document showed how the garden communities, comprising well over 2,000 units of Public Housing in Seattle alone, could have been revitalized in ways that would have increased security and generated a greater sense of ownership and pride in the communities, while also preserving 100% of the existing Public Housing units.
http://www.zipcon.com/~jvf4119/hopeVIjohn.htm
*************
How HUD's HOPE VI Program is Destroying a Historic Houston Neighborhood
Houston, the nation's fourth largest city, is home to the south's largest black community , and Fourth Ward is Houston's oldest and most historically significant black neighborhood.
Click below for full report...
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/uip/research/docstuds/coll/mcghee.html
*************
The War on the Poor in Public Housing
http://www.cpsr.cs.uchicago.edu/countermedia/briefings/pubhous.html
CounterMedia Briefing
"They kicking us out, they telling us, `This is no longer your neighborhood. Forget the times, and the friends, and the years you spent here. We changing this. You gotta go.'" - grandson of a woman moved out of Horner Homes
It's been more than a year since HUD took over a scandal-ridden Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), promising a great many improvements. So, it's likely that during the four day orgy of self-congratulations known as the Democratic National Convention, Clinton will boast of public housing successes or maybe sneak a photo-op in the nearby Horner Homes projects. However, what is certain is that neither he nor any other politico will admit the true nature of their housing agenda - shared by Democrat and Republic an alike: that government efforts to "end public housing as we know it" constitute nothing less than a war against the poorest of the poor.
The basics:
Large scale budget cuts while making public housing more "cost efficient"; demolishing thousands of units of public housing while bringing in families with higher incomes to replace the very poor; increasing control over those residents who remain - from new rules and regulations to police and guards. What follows is a brief look at how this agenda plays out in Chicago.
Here comes the wrecking ball:
With three down so far, up to half of the buildings at Horner Homes are to be leveled via a 6 year court-ordered "revitalization program." At Cabrini Green, the CHA and the Mayor have proposed the demolition of 1,300 units - nearly 40% of the entire project. Four buildings have already fallen. Additional demolitions are both planned and in progress at other CHA developments.
An increased opportunity to be homeless:
Promises for replacement housing are often inadequate and full of loopholes. "One-for-one" replacement requirement is now repealed and demolitions will result in a net loss of very low income housing. The plan for Cabrini Green calls for 2,000 units of new housing, but the vast majority of these homes will be "market rate" and geared for the upper income families who live in neighboring areas. Further, under the "mixed income strategy," only half of the roughly 600 "public housing" replacement units will be set aside for families surviving on a welfare check or a minimum wage income.
What we say ain't what you get:
Twice last fall at Henry Horner, the Chicago Housing Authority violated their own court ordered agreements by using deception, threats and outright force to relocate public housing residents from their apartments. For resisting these tactics, one older woman and her family were targeted, with two dozen police brought out to ensure she moved.
Few carrots but lots of sticks:
In the name of "security," CHA residents have been subjected to arbitrary and vicious acts of brutality by police and guards. In June, gun wielding guards terrorized residents of one Horner building, beating one man bloody in full view of an outraged crowd. During the recent massive mobilization for the Bulls basketball victory, city cops locked down a Robert Taylor Homes high rise, clubbing and macing people. For hours, no resident was allowed in or out.
Again and again, residents have expressed their opposition to this treatment. There have been vocal objections raised to officials at packed meetings and individual determination not to be treated like cattle. They have picketed demolition sites and marched to city hall. While officials have attempted to slight and downplay this sentiment, it can't be ignored.
"I mean all they got to do next is bring the ball and chain along and we'd be back in slavery. And that ain't gonna happen, cuz they'd have to kill me first." - woman from Horner Homes
Additional information: V.X., c/o RCP Publications, 312/ 227-4066; or c/o CounterMedia, 312/670-9673, xmediax [at] ripco.com.
For more on the disaster of privatizing public housing, click below for A Great Chicago Land Grab...
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/apr97peterson.html
***********
[Hope VI Program Displaces The Poor]
Mixed-income plan tests an urban vision- The Scott and Carver public housing units will come down in a major federal overhaul of housing for the poor.
10/5/03 - Miami Herald
Across the country, some HOPE VI projects have been criticized for delivering little or no benefits to public housing tenants. In most cases, HOPE VI projects yield fewer public housing units than existed before. There is no guarantee that every former tenant will be able to live in the new developments. And education, job training and other promised services are not always provided.
Numbers paint a bleak economic picture of the current residents. More than 75 percent of families are considered extremely low-income, earning less than 30 percent of the Miami's area median income of $43,140. About 68 percent of families receive some type of public assistance, such as food stamps or welfare. A similar percentage of households are headed by someone who is unemployed.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the HOPE VI program, gives the misleading impression, through local housing agencies, that all public housing tenants will be able to buy a house or rent a better apartment, critics say. In reality, they say, many end up in other public housing developments and are no better off than before.
Also, in trying to build single-family homes, housing authorities destroy valuable units that cannot be replaced. More than 44,000 public housing units will be eliminated when HOPE VI projects nationwide are completed, according to a report by the Center for Community Change, a housing advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
At Scott/Carver, only 30 percent of on-site units will be public housing.
Worries about how many former residents will actually benefit from the new HOPE VI projects were reflected in interviews with public housing tenants across the country, including some at Scott, conducted for the report of the Center for Community Change.
''Our concern is that over the last 10 years, the program is about making properties look pretty, but not dealing with people's lives,'' said Dashaw Hockett, a policy analyst for the center, who interviewed Scott residents.
Mary Reese, a plaintiff in a federal suit claiming that Miami-Dade County is illegally forcing residents to move, said the $35 million in federal funds to improve conditions at Scott/ Carver should benefit the original tenants.
''A lot of people have got fat off us, and we haven't gotten anything,'' Reese said.
Click below for full story...
http://www.floridacdc.org/articles/031003-1.htm
***********
USA Tenants Fight to Save Social Housing
File Format: Microsoft Word - View as HTML
More than 120000 units of Public Housing have been demolished under HOPE VI since its inception. In their place, fewer than 40000 new units of “mixed ...
http://www.iut.nu/Tillfalliga_artiklar/USA%20NAHT.doc
***********
New Orleans To Demolish Most Public Housing Units
June 16, 2006
In New Orleans, officials have announced plans to tear down much of the city’s public housing units. The units suffered extensive damage during Hurricane Katrina. Rebuilding plans call for much of the public housing to be replaced by mixed-income units. The move will greatly reduce the number of available public housing units in New Orleans. Just 1,000 of the more than 5,000 families who lived in public housing have been able to return to their homes since Katrina struck last August. Curtis Muhammad, a housing advocate with the People's Organizing Committee, criticized the plan, saying: "These are the people who were left in New Orleans to die, who were locked up in the Superdome and the Convention Center [and now] the government wants to get rid of any housing for them.”
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/16/1355211
**********
Housing complex sale worries some
Housing advocates say the $12.3-million deal for Graham-Rogall Park will put affordable housing for the elderly, disabled and handicapped at risk.
http://sptimes.com/2006/09/27/Neighborhoodtimes/Housing_complex_sale_.shtml
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published September 27, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - The long-planned sale of the Graham-Rogall Park public housing complex near Tropicana Field is nearing completion.
The St. Petersburg Housing Authority is selling the property to Vector Realty & Management Inc. for $12.3-million. Closing is not expected to take place for several months.
Affordable housing advocates are concerned about the sale of the complex that provides housing for the elderly, disabled and handicapped.
Jane Trocheck Walker, executive director of Daystar Life Center, which distributes USDA food to Graham-Rogall residents, is skeptical that the plan will work. "There's nothing that says (the new owners) have to accept vouchers. It's like having money from another country, but where are you going to spend it. I want to see a solid plan. I want to see some guarantees," she said."
Walker, whose downtown agency assists the needy, said she is concerned about what will happen if residents have to move. "They are going to have to go out and find a place that's taking housing vouchers and then they're going to have to make the physical move and we're dealing with people with limited capacity," she said.
"If there's no housing available, what are they going to do? We already know that there's an affordable housing crisis, so where are they going to go and who's going to help them find housing?"
The Rev. Manuel Sykes said there's a problem with privatizing public housing and keeping it affordable, especially when it involves seniors. Sykes is vice chairman of FAST, or Faith and Action for Strength Together, an interfaith Pinellas County effort to tackle social justice issues.
The Baptist minister and president of St. Petersburg Theological Seminary said he is worried that a move will disrupt the lives of those who live at Graham-Rogall.
"They are a vertical community with long-term residents that they have learned to live with for a long time," Sykes said.
"You're displacing people from a community that's not going to be readily replaced. It's a link to sanity, emotional well being. It's something that I think needs to be thought out on all levels if you want to do this thing in a way that's humane."
PUBLIC HOUSING
ST. PETERSBURG
Public housing developments owned by the St. Petersburg Housing Authority:
* Graham-Rogall Park, 325 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. S, consists of two apartment buildings. Graham: 336 units, studios, 1 and 2 bedrooms. Rogall: 150 studios and 1 bedrooms.
* Clearview Park, 3200 37th Ave. N, 22 units, 1, 2 and 3 bedrooms.
* Disston Place, 3940 55th St. N, 33 Units, 2 bedrooms.
* Jordan Park, 1245 Jordan Park St. S, 237 units, 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedrooms.
* Romayne Apartments, 8601 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N, 20 units, 1 and 2 bedrooms.
PINELLAS COUNTY
Public housing in Pinellas County:
* 1,731, public housing units in the county, 649 in St. Petersburg.
* 6,837 housing choice vouchers available in the county, 2,760 in St. Petersburg.
* 1,662 additional affordable housing units owned by housing authorities, none in St. Petersburg, 236 units at Crystal Lake Manor in Pinellas Park for people 62 and over.
[Last modified September 27, 2006, 06:35:12]
************
Perpetuity key to public housing sale
Sunday, August 27, 2006
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Aug/27/op/FP608270309.html
If Honolulu wants to privatize all of the city's public housing units, there's only one way to do it properly: The city should make sure any sale includes a provision to keep all 1,250 of these units affordable in perpetuity.
Perpetuity, of course, means forever. But that's the required detail needed in any future contract with a potential buyer. In fact, even the meaning of the word "affordable" must be clearly negotiated up front.
A 10-, 15- or 20-year commitment to affordability is not enough.
If any deal falls short of forever, we all should have a real problem with the city getting out of the affordable-housing business.
To date, there have been discussions between the City Council and Carmel Partners, a group that is in the process of buying the privately owned Kukui Gardens, an affordable rental project in Chinatown. Carmel's talks with the city must be taken seriously. Mayor Mufi Hannemann is on record saying he would agree to a sale of the city's 12 affordable housing properties as long as the units stayed affordable and tenants were not kicked out.
Sounds good. But it would all be more reassuring if the city would place even greater emphasis on that all-important detail: perpetuity.
Without that detail, the city puts into question whether it is seeking privatization for the right reasons.
The fact is public housing has been an investment made by the city with taxpayer dollars. The city may feel it should sell these units because it lacks the ability (or will) to maintain and run public housing as a business.
But that doesn't erase the need for affordable public housing in the community. With the need for affordable housing growing throughout all economic sectors in Honolulu, we have more than a compelling reason to make sure the investment the city has already made in public housing is passed on and remains affordable.
A clause in any sales contract that protects affordability in perpetuity would certainly impact the price the city could command, which could make the city think twice about any deal. But without such a clause, any short-term gain for the city's coffers is likely to result in real long-term problems.
Any sale should protect affordability forever. If it's serious about privatizing public housing, the city must demand that level of commitment to the public good from any potential buyer.
**************
Housing-Related Program
HOPE VI
In 1993, Congress created the HOPE VI program through the VA-HUD-IA Appropriations Act to revitalize dilapidated public housing units.
But the HOPE VI program has not been beneficial to everyone. Approximately 30% of residents surveyed continue to live in high-poverty and high-crime neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, many families are being displaced and low income housing units are being lost under the HOPE VI program. As of September 2005, HOPE VI grantees planned to replace approximately half of the public housing units demolished. The remaining redeveloped units are intended for higher income residents who can pay more in rent or purchase some of the redeveloped units.
http://www.nlihc.org/advocates/hopevi.htm
---Privatizing Our Public Housing---
Public Housing in the USA and Elsewhere...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Public housing or project homes is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Although the common goal is to maintain affordable housing, the details of the arrangements differ between countries, and so does the terminology.
1 Australia
2 France
3 Germany
4 Netherlands
5 Ireland
6 Israel
7 Hong Kong
8 New Zealand
9 Singapore
10 Sweden
11 United Kingdom
12 Spain
13 United States and Canada
14 See also
*************
---HOPE VI FACTS---
More than 120000 units of Public Housing have been demolished under HOPE VI since its inception.
Less than 12% of tenants displaced from a Hope VI project are allowed to move back into the newly rebuilt housing units, that replaced the public housing units lost by demolitions.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
---Buildings & Apartments Are Not Notorious---
Corporations Are Notorious!
[EBALDC and Related Companies, LLC., created Creekside Housing Partners, L.P., to take control of Oakland's public housing property in East Oakland at the Coliseum Gardens site, now known as Lion Creek Crossings. Chambers Construction will develop the homeownership portion at Lion Creek Crossings with EBALDC and The Related Company jointly responsible for the apartments.]
---Lion Creek Crossing (Coliseum Garden) Now Renting---
http://www.ebaldc.org/realestate_dev.html
From EBALDC Website:
The Oakland Housing Authority received a HOPE VI grant to replace its 178 notorious Coliseum Garden apartments with a mixed income development of over 350 apartments and approximately 28 homes for sale. EBALDC assembled a development team, which includes The Related Company of California and Chambers Construction to work with the housing authority. Chambers Construction will develop the homeownership portion with EBALDC and The Related Company jointly responsible for the apartments. The development will surround a revitalized 5 acre City Park and Lion creek, which will also be restored by the city. The first phase of this development includes 115 apartments and 7,500 square feet of space for community services.
Click below for photos and EBALDC contact number...
http://www.ebaldc.org/lion_creek.html
This phase is under construction with a second phase of 146 apartments and another 7,500 square feet scheduled to start late in 2005. Community services anticipated include a Head Start Child Care Center, youth and after school programs, health programs, career counseling and business development opportunities. A third phase is being planned with over a hundred family apartments and townhouses that will overlook the restored Lion creek and city park.
These brand new Lion Creek Crossing apartments are ready for occupants. Contact EBALDC today at (510) 287-5353 for details....
*************
[Hope VI Program Kills Communities Of Color]
Public Housing Redevelopment Sparks Multi-City Protest & Lawsuit
By Christopher Tidmore, Political Columnist
July 3, 2006
On last Tuesday, at ten o'clock in the morning, in three separate cities, New Orleanians protested the decision to demolish 5000 public housing buildings in the Crescent City and demanded the right of immediate return to those properties of the former residents.
The demonstrations led to the filing of a civil rights lawsuit later that afternoon alleging that the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are preventing low-income black families from returning to the city.
The protest and the subsequent lawsuit comes in the wake of the decision of the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish St. Bernard, C.J Peete, B.W. Cooper and Lafitte housing developments and replace them with 'mixed-income" housing, a combination of public housing, rental housing and single-family homes. The public housing properties have been fenced off and shuttered in the months after Katrina.
This protest followed a similar gathering on Saturday June 18th in the Garden District. At that demonstration, housing residents and activists charged that "mixed-income" housing provides too few units for low-income people. They cited as an example, The St. Thomas Housing Development which in 2000 was demolished and replaced by HRs River Garden. Before the demolition, St. Thomas was home to approximately 900 public housing families. Only 200 units located in the River Gardens are now allocated to public housing residents, according to Housing activist Elizabeth Cook.
"We are tired of seeing our neighborhoods demolished and replaced by housing for wealthier people", Pamela Mahogany, resident of the St. Bernard Housing Development who is trying to return home, told Weekly.
"By tearing down developments you're not giving me the choice to come back home to New Orleans, where I was forced to leave," said Cherlynn Gaynor, 42, who grew up in the Lafitte.
Click below for full report...
http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20060703b
*************
[[[For almost every resident in a new HOPE VI low-income housing unit, a past public housing resident has been evicted.]]]
Hope VI: HUD’s Program of False Hope
False Hope
Two main flaws inherent in the reasoning of HUD officials and others who support HOPE VI.
First, HOPE VI immediately displaces the residents of existing housing units wherever such projects are undertaken. The initial phase of the initiative is to destroy a significant number of existing housing projects. The evicted residents receive no meaningful compensation for this displacement and are relocated to other public housing units or left to their own devices to scrounge for any available private housing. Either way, HOPE VI imposes substantial costs on those families and individuals who are presumably supposed to be helped by HUD’s programs.
Click below for more...
http://www.acton.org/publicat/randl/article.php?id=436
*************
[THE HOPE VI NIGHTMARE IN DETAIL]
New Report on HOPE VI:
HOPE Unseen: Voices from the Other Side
http://www.communitychange.org/issues/housing/publications/?page=hopeiv
HOPE VI gets a lot of favorable coverage in the media. However, too often, only one side of the HOPE VI story is told. Usually, the genuine voices of most public housing residents affected by HOPE VI get edited out of the story.
Local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), the media, and HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) often give the impression that everyone benefits from the HOPE VI program. There is a sense that every public housing resident either gets a nice new townhouse or the opportunity to move into a nice apartment using a housing voucher. However, most of the residents interviewed for this study had different experiences.
Download the report below. Printed version will be available late September, 2003.
HOPE Unseen (full report, 108 pages, MS Word)
Hope Unseen (Executive Summary, 18 pages, MS Word)
Report available in sections, for quicker downloading. (MS Word)
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Executive Summary
A Net Loss of Public Housing Units Affordable to Low-Income Families
Deception Regarding Reoccupancy of the Revitalized Public Housing Property
Challenges with Resident Relocation
HOPE VI and the Housing Voucher Program
Other Harmful Impacts Experienced with HOPE VI
Has HOPE VI Provided a Better Living Situation for Residents?
Were the Public Housing Properties “Severely Distressed?”
Barriers to Accessing or Effectively Utilizing Community and Supportive Services
Challenges to Effective Resident Participation in Grant Planning and Implementation
Appendix A -- Description of the Seven HOPE VI Sites
Appendix B -- Definition of “Severely Distressed”
Appendix C -- Analysis of HOPE VI grantees that may be engaged in activities worthy of further examination and, possibly, replication in the areas of replacement housing and reoccupancy
http://www.communitychange.org/issues/housing/publications/?page=hopeiv
***********
[Whta's Gone Wrong With Hope VI In Seattle?]
---An Indepth Look At The Hope VI Program---
Architecture and HOPE VI
Building Housing or Barriers to Housing?
http://www.zipcon.com/~jvf4119/hopeVIjohn.htm
This glowing AIA description of an award-winning Public Housing redevelopment doesn’t mention that of the 462 units destroyed, only 297 were built in their place, of which only 185 were Public Housing, producing a net loss of 60 percent in Public Housing units.[2] The article also doesn’t mention the federal subsidy commitment that vanished forever with the lost units. Nor does it explore what happened to the displaced tenants and those on the waiting lists. Not to mention that, as one former resident of the community said, the whole place “could have been renovated. They had [previously] modernized the kitchens and bathrooms. They had put in new windows, screens, and screen doors. They had put in a new boiler and thermostats. They were good, steady buildings.”[3]
The same pattern of Public Housing demolition, accompanied by a steady stream of accolades from trade and professional organizations and mainstream media, has been occurring nationwide as the result of a housing “revitalization” program called HOPE VI. While the “HOPE” in HOPE VI stands for “Home Ownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere”, the program as it is being implemented will produce a nationwide net loss of over 50,000 Public Housing units once affordable to low-income families desperately in need of this resource.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, in 1992, the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) and a number of other City and County agencies conducted a series of charrettes on the larger Public Housing garden communities in the area. The results were summarized in a report entitled “Breaking Down the Barriers”[4]. This document showed how the garden communities, comprising well over 2,000 units of Public Housing in Seattle alone, could have been revitalized in ways that would have increased security and generated a greater sense of ownership and pride in the communities, while also preserving 100% of the existing Public Housing units.
http://www.zipcon.com/~jvf4119/hopeVIjohn.htm
*************
How HUD's HOPE VI Program is Destroying a Historic Houston Neighborhood
Houston, the nation's fourth largest city, is home to the south's largest black community , and Fourth Ward is Houston's oldest and most historically significant black neighborhood.
Click below for full report...
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/uip/research/docstuds/coll/mcghee.html
*************
The War on the Poor in Public Housing
http://www.cpsr.cs.uchicago.edu/countermedia/briefings/pubhous.html
CounterMedia Briefing
"They kicking us out, they telling us, `This is no longer your neighborhood. Forget the times, and the friends, and the years you spent here. We changing this. You gotta go.'" - grandson of a woman moved out of Horner Homes
It's been more than a year since HUD took over a scandal-ridden Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), promising a great many improvements. So, it's likely that during the four day orgy of self-congratulations known as the Democratic National Convention, Clinton will boast of public housing successes or maybe sneak a photo-op in the nearby Horner Homes projects. However, what is certain is that neither he nor any other politico will admit the true nature of their housing agenda - shared by Democrat and Republic an alike: that government efforts to "end public housing as we know it" constitute nothing less than a war against the poorest of the poor.
The basics:
Large scale budget cuts while making public housing more "cost efficient"; demolishing thousands of units of public housing while bringing in families with higher incomes to replace the very poor; increasing control over those residents who remain - from new rules and regulations to police and guards. What follows is a brief look at how this agenda plays out in Chicago.
Here comes the wrecking ball:
With three down so far, up to half of the buildings at Horner Homes are to be leveled via a 6 year court-ordered "revitalization program." At Cabrini Green, the CHA and the Mayor have proposed the demolition of 1,300 units - nearly 40% of the entire project. Four buildings have already fallen. Additional demolitions are both planned and in progress at other CHA developments.
An increased opportunity to be homeless:
Promises for replacement housing are often inadequate and full of loopholes. "One-for-one" replacement requirement is now repealed and demolitions will result in a net loss of very low income housing. The plan for Cabrini Green calls for 2,000 units of new housing, but the vast majority of these homes will be "market rate" and geared for the upper income families who live in neighboring areas. Further, under the "mixed income strategy," only half of the roughly 600 "public housing" replacement units will be set aside for families surviving on a welfare check or a minimum wage income.
What we say ain't what you get:
Twice last fall at Henry Horner, the Chicago Housing Authority violated their own court ordered agreements by using deception, threats and outright force to relocate public housing residents from their apartments. For resisting these tactics, one older woman and her family were targeted, with two dozen police brought out to ensure she moved.
Few carrots but lots of sticks:
In the name of "security," CHA residents have been subjected to arbitrary and vicious acts of brutality by police and guards. In June, gun wielding guards terrorized residents of one Horner building, beating one man bloody in full view of an outraged crowd. During the recent massive mobilization for the Bulls basketball victory, city cops locked down a Robert Taylor Homes high rise, clubbing and macing people. For hours, no resident was allowed in or out.
Again and again, residents have expressed their opposition to this treatment. There have been vocal objections raised to officials at packed meetings and individual determination not to be treated like cattle. They have picketed demolition sites and marched to city hall. While officials have attempted to slight and downplay this sentiment, it can't be ignored.
"I mean all they got to do next is bring the ball and chain along and we'd be back in slavery. And that ain't gonna happen, cuz they'd have to kill me first." - woman from Horner Homes
Additional information: V.X., c/o RCP Publications, 312/ 227-4066; or c/o CounterMedia, 312/670-9673, xmediax [at] ripco.com.
For more on the disaster of privatizing public housing, click below for A Great Chicago Land Grab...
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/apr97peterson.html
***********
[Hope VI Program Displaces The Poor]
Mixed-income plan tests an urban vision- The Scott and Carver public housing units will come down in a major federal overhaul of housing for the poor.
10/5/03 - Miami Herald
Across the country, some HOPE VI projects have been criticized for delivering little or no benefits to public housing tenants. In most cases, HOPE VI projects yield fewer public housing units than existed before. There is no guarantee that every former tenant will be able to live in the new developments. And education, job training and other promised services are not always provided.
Numbers paint a bleak economic picture of the current residents. More than 75 percent of families are considered extremely low-income, earning less than 30 percent of the Miami's area median income of $43,140. About 68 percent of families receive some type of public assistance, such as food stamps or welfare. A similar percentage of households are headed by someone who is unemployed.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the HOPE VI program, gives the misleading impression, through local housing agencies, that all public housing tenants will be able to buy a house or rent a better apartment, critics say. In reality, they say, many end up in other public housing developments and are no better off than before.
Also, in trying to build single-family homes, housing authorities destroy valuable units that cannot be replaced. More than 44,000 public housing units will be eliminated when HOPE VI projects nationwide are completed, according to a report by the Center for Community Change, a housing advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
At Scott/Carver, only 30 percent of on-site units will be public housing.
Worries about how many former residents will actually benefit from the new HOPE VI projects were reflected in interviews with public housing tenants across the country, including some at Scott, conducted for the report of the Center for Community Change.
''Our concern is that over the last 10 years, the program is about making properties look pretty, but not dealing with people's lives,'' said Dashaw Hockett, a policy analyst for the center, who interviewed Scott residents.
Mary Reese, a plaintiff in a federal suit claiming that Miami-Dade County is illegally forcing residents to move, said the $35 million in federal funds to improve conditions at Scott/ Carver should benefit the original tenants.
''A lot of people have got fat off us, and we haven't gotten anything,'' Reese said.
Click below for full story...
http://www.floridacdc.org/articles/031003-1.htm
***********
USA Tenants Fight to Save Social Housing
File Format: Microsoft Word - View as HTML
More than 120000 units of Public Housing have been demolished under HOPE VI since its inception. In their place, fewer than 40000 new units of “mixed ...
http://www.iut.nu/Tillfalliga_artiklar/USA%20NAHT.doc
***********
New Orleans To Demolish Most Public Housing Units
June 16, 2006
In New Orleans, officials have announced plans to tear down much of the city’s public housing units. The units suffered extensive damage during Hurricane Katrina. Rebuilding plans call for much of the public housing to be replaced by mixed-income units. The move will greatly reduce the number of available public housing units in New Orleans. Just 1,000 of the more than 5,000 families who lived in public housing have been able to return to their homes since Katrina struck last August. Curtis Muhammad, a housing advocate with the People's Organizing Committee, criticized the plan, saying: "These are the people who were left in New Orleans to die, who were locked up in the Superdome and the Convention Center [and now] the government wants to get rid of any housing for them.”
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/16/1355211
**********
Housing complex sale worries some
Housing advocates say the $12.3-million deal for Graham-Rogall Park will put affordable housing for the elderly, disabled and handicapped at risk.
http://sptimes.com/2006/09/27/Neighborhoodtimes/Housing_complex_sale_.shtml
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published September 27, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - The long-planned sale of the Graham-Rogall Park public housing complex near Tropicana Field is nearing completion.
The St. Petersburg Housing Authority is selling the property to Vector Realty & Management Inc. for $12.3-million. Closing is not expected to take place for several months.
Affordable housing advocates are concerned about the sale of the complex that provides housing for the elderly, disabled and handicapped.
Jane Trocheck Walker, executive director of Daystar Life Center, which distributes USDA food to Graham-Rogall residents, is skeptical that the plan will work. "There's nothing that says (the new owners) have to accept vouchers. It's like having money from another country, but where are you going to spend it. I want to see a solid plan. I want to see some guarantees," she said."
Walker, whose downtown agency assists the needy, said she is concerned about what will happen if residents have to move. "They are going to have to go out and find a place that's taking housing vouchers and then they're going to have to make the physical move and we're dealing with people with limited capacity," she said.
"If there's no housing available, what are they going to do? We already know that there's an affordable housing crisis, so where are they going to go and who's going to help them find housing?"
The Rev. Manuel Sykes said there's a problem with privatizing public housing and keeping it affordable, especially when it involves seniors. Sykes is vice chairman of FAST, or Faith and Action for Strength Together, an interfaith Pinellas County effort to tackle social justice issues.
The Baptist minister and president of St. Petersburg Theological Seminary said he is worried that a move will disrupt the lives of those who live at Graham-Rogall.
"They are a vertical community with long-term residents that they have learned to live with for a long time," Sykes said.
"You're displacing people from a community that's not going to be readily replaced. It's a link to sanity, emotional well being. It's something that I think needs to be thought out on all levels if you want to do this thing in a way that's humane."
PUBLIC HOUSING
ST. PETERSBURG
Public housing developments owned by the St. Petersburg Housing Authority:
* Graham-Rogall Park, 325 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. S, consists of two apartment buildings. Graham: 336 units, studios, 1 and 2 bedrooms. Rogall: 150 studios and 1 bedrooms.
* Clearview Park, 3200 37th Ave. N, 22 units, 1, 2 and 3 bedrooms.
* Disston Place, 3940 55th St. N, 33 Units, 2 bedrooms.
* Jordan Park, 1245 Jordan Park St. S, 237 units, 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedrooms.
* Romayne Apartments, 8601 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N, 20 units, 1 and 2 bedrooms.
PINELLAS COUNTY
Public housing in Pinellas County:
* 1,731, public housing units in the county, 649 in St. Petersburg.
* 6,837 housing choice vouchers available in the county, 2,760 in St. Petersburg.
* 1,662 additional affordable housing units owned by housing authorities, none in St. Petersburg, 236 units at Crystal Lake Manor in Pinellas Park for people 62 and over.
[Last modified September 27, 2006, 06:35:12]
************
Perpetuity key to public housing sale
Sunday, August 27, 2006
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Aug/27/op/FP608270309.html
If Honolulu wants to privatize all of the city's public housing units, there's only one way to do it properly: The city should make sure any sale includes a provision to keep all 1,250 of these units affordable in perpetuity.
Perpetuity, of course, means forever. But that's the required detail needed in any future contract with a potential buyer. In fact, even the meaning of the word "affordable" must be clearly negotiated up front.
A 10-, 15- or 20-year commitment to affordability is not enough.
If any deal falls short of forever, we all should have a real problem with the city getting out of the affordable-housing business.
To date, there have been discussions between the City Council and Carmel Partners, a group that is in the process of buying the privately owned Kukui Gardens, an affordable rental project in Chinatown. Carmel's talks with the city must be taken seriously. Mayor Mufi Hannemann is on record saying he would agree to a sale of the city's 12 affordable housing properties as long as the units stayed affordable and tenants were not kicked out.
Sounds good. But it would all be more reassuring if the city would place even greater emphasis on that all-important detail: perpetuity.
Without that detail, the city puts into question whether it is seeking privatization for the right reasons.
The fact is public housing has been an investment made by the city with taxpayer dollars. The city may feel it should sell these units because it lacks the ability (or will) to maintain and run public housing as a business.
But that doesn't erase the need for affordable public housing in the community. With the need for affordable housing growing throughout all economic sectors in Honolulu, we have more than a compelling reason to make sure the investment the city has already made in public housing is passed on and remains affordable.
A clause in any sales contract that protects affordability in perpetuity would certainly impact the price the city could command, which could make the city think twice about any deal. But without such a clause, any short-term gain for the city's coffers is likely to result in real long-term problems.
Any sale should protect affordability forever. If it's serious about privatizing public housing, the city must demand that level of commitment to the public good from any potential buyer.
**************
Housing-Related Program
HOPE VI
In 1993, Congress created the HOPE VI program through the VA-HUD-IA Appropriations Act to revitalize dilapidated public housing units.
But the HOPE VI program has not been beneficial to everyone. Approximately 30% of residents surveyed continue to live in high-poverty and high-crime neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, many families are being displaced and low income housing units are being lost under the HOPE VI program. As of September 2005, HOPE VI grantees planned to replace approximately half of the public housing units demolished. The remaining redeveloped units are intended for higher income residents who can pay more in rent or purchase some of the redeveloped units.
http://www.nlihc.org/advocates/hopevi.htm
is this a way to up the rent it seems while hus said 325 percent is mayx rent then 30 % then 40 % now this palce says can cahrge 50% of income which hud is still calling not affrodable unless bushes implant to hud jackson changed that too?
Are the tenants not allowed back in because they can no longer qualify for the higher incomes and rents required?
how can the number ended up homless and lost assitance not be counted?
why is there no advocay or legal asstiance for low incomers in bay area on shelter and housign issues.
is everyone on payolla?
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network