RSS feed: RSS is a web feed format used to publish frequently-updated content. Use this feed in an RSS reader or browser (Safari 2, Firefox 2, or Internet Explorer 7 and higher)
PHOTO BY JIM WEBER
Tommy Davis (left) hands corn from the Mid-South Food Bank to Michael Bowen on Wednesday as they assemble food at the Emmanuel Episcopal Center in Cleaborn Homes for distribution. A federal grant will fund demolition and redevelopment of Cleaborn Homes.
By Amos Maki - The Commercial Appeal -
June 2, 2010 -
The city of Memphis' push to redevelop its public housing got a major assist Wednesday with announcement of a $22 million federal HOPE VI grant to redevelop Cleaborn Homes near Downtown.
"We've been waiting a long time for this," said Robert Lipscomb, executive director of the Memphis Housing Authority. "We're excited."
The Housing and Urban Development grant will be used to replace the 50-plus-year-old public-housing development, where units resemble military barracks, with a mixed-use community designed to attract a broad range of income groups and services.
"We don't want any more public housing," said Lipscomb. "We want communities."
Lipscomb said demolition of Cleaborn, located near Danny Thomas Boulevard and Vance Avenue, could begin by the end of the year and that the MHA would soon begin the process of relocating current Cleaborn residents. Lipscomb said the residents could be moved to other HOPE VI communities or be given housing vouchers to live elsewhere.
"That's going to be our first task, moving the families," he said.
The 460 aging units at Cleaborn will be razed and replaced with 400 new units. Of those, 140 will be public housing and low-income tax-credit rental units; 110 will be low-income, tax-credit-only units; 40 will be voucher units; and 110 will be market-rate rental units.
HUD officials and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., joined Lipscomb and Cleaborn residents for the announcement Wednesday.
"It's an honor to be a part of making this neighborhood an anchor and asset for this community for decades to come," said HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic.
With Wednesday's announcement, HUD has now granted the city about $150 million in five HOPE VI grants.
"You guys know what you're doing," said Bostic.
Previous grants have gone to redevelop Dixie Homes, under way at Poplar and Pauline; Lamar Terrace, which is now University Place at Lamar and Interstate 240; LeMoyne Gardens, now College Park at 838 Walker; and Hurt Village, now Uptown, at Danny Thomas Boulevard and Auction.
The goal of HOPE VI is to integrate public housing into mixed-income communities.
"We've had de facto segregation for years because of housing," said Cohen.
Carrie Hicks, a resident of Cleaborn who has been in public housing for 40 years, said she hoped the project would lessen crime in the neighborhood, where the sound of gunfire is a constant.
"I'm tired of ducking and dodging," she said.
Hicks said she worries about where she will end up during the relocation process.
"Now, we sit and wait," she said.
The Cleaborn project is part of a much larger redevelopment initiative called Triangle Noir, a still-evolving plan to redevelop 20 city blocks from Union Avenue to E.H. Crump Boulevard. Lipscomb called the area Triangle Noir, or Black Triangle, because the area was once the epicenter of black business development and entrepreneurship.
The long-range plan is to secure another HOPE VI funding grant to tear down the aging Foote Homes complex near Vance and Danny Thomas Boulevard.
"We're going to rally this community to get HOPE VI for Foote Homes," said Lipscomb.
