Study skewers HOPE housing

The nation's innovative alternative to old-style public housing, HOPE VI, may be a hit with public officials, but on the eve of its proposed renewal in Congress not everyone sings its praises.

"If I had to do it all over again, I would not have signed the paper," said Frances Carter, president of Meyers Ridge Tenant Council in McKees Rocks.

Not only has HOPE VI fallen short of the promises, it places added restrictions on residents and creates an uncomfortable mix of tenants and homeowners, she said.

"It's been nothing but a bunch of grief. You can't do nothing," Carter said. "Also, putting public housing smack in the middle of homeowners does not create a community, it creates a problem."

A national report released recently about HOPE VI supports some of Carter's assertions. The report, "False Hope," completed by the California-based National Housing Law Project and three other public housing advocacy groups, contends the acclaimed federal program actually has displaced thousands of public housing residents.

HOPE VI was born 10 years ago as a way to address "severely distressed" public housing sites by leveling the high-rises and replacing them with mixed-income developments. Local housing authorities can apply through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the competitive grant.

HUD reports more than $4.8 billion in competitive revitalization grants were awarded to housing authorities to redevelop 165 public housing sites in 98 cities in the program's first nine years. Last year, HUD provided 16 HOPE VI revitalization grants totaling $491 million.

HOPE VI, when it started, was viewed as a way to improve the lives of residents with newer model homes in a mixed-income community. The report contends, however, that many public housing residents are being left out of the new HOPE VI developments. Harassment, inadequate relocation services, lack of affordable housing and tough readmission screening criteria are keeping people from these newer developments, the report states.

Using HUD's numbers from 1993 to 1999, authors of the report argue that only 11.4 percent of former housing residents find a spot in new HOPE VI developments. About 30 percent are given portable Housing Choice Vouchers and 49 percent are transferred to non-HOPE VI housing units. The remaining residents no longer receive housing assistance.

Part of the problem, according to the report, has been the elimination of old housing for these new, less-dense units: The country could see a loss of more than 107,000 public housing units through demolition.

In addition, the report stated that for every 100 very low income renter households in 1999, there were only 70 affordable and available units. And for the extremely low-income household, there were only 40 units affordable for every 100 needed.

Todd Espinosa, an attorney for the National Housing Law Project, said the shortage of affordable housing for the poor and the dislocation of public housing residents because of HOPE VI are major concerns for his group. The organization led the push for the study because HOPE VI will end in its current form at the end of the federal government fiscal year. Espinosa said the report could be used for input to Congress, which has to reauthorize HOPE VI by the end of September.

"We take large amounts of federal dollars and move families from a site and prevent most of the families from coming back," Espinosa said.

The trend toward fewer public housing units is the same locally.

Pittsburgh's HOPE VI program will undergo $65.5 million of demolition and construction, razing 2,160 units in the city and building 1,750 new ones for the three projects: Manchester on the North Side; Oak Hill, formerly Allequippa Terrace, in the Hill District; and Bedford Dwellings, also in the Hill District.

Pittsburgh Housing Authority Executive Director Keith Kinard said the problem with public housing of the past was its density, which he blamed for contributing to crime and despair. Smaller concentrations of people have led to less crime, Kinard said. He also believes mixed incomes in these developments have created a positive environment, which in turn has helped lessen crime.

"Overall, families do better under the mixed system — less dense, less crime," Kinard said.

"Anytime you take a 900-unit public housing community and compare it with a 400-unit, not only do you have less crime, but mix in 200 market-rate renters and homeowners, better architectural design, better infrastructure, it just contributes to less crime," he said.

Kinard points to recent crime statistics in public housing in the Hill District. In 1998, construction began on Oak Hill, which was to replace the nearby 800-unit Allequippa Terrace.

In 1999, there were 953 crimes reported in the Allequippa Terrace area. As residents moved into Oak Hill and other public housing units, reports of crime in Oak Hill fell. In 2000, there were 717 reports of crime; in 2001, there were 359 reports; and as of July, there have been 111.

"But no one is being forced into a situation. They have options. You can choose to remain in public housing HOPE VI or transfer to another public housing unit. People can take Section 8 vouchers and move anywhere in the country, or they can just move into the private market."

Kinard said the authority has used HOPE VI to rebuild communities.

"Our belief is not to just redevelop and keep families in the same area that we already know has a lot of issues. It's to build units and neighborhoods … create real communities," Kinard said.

Allegheny County HOPE VI Director Walter MacFann, pointing to the McKees Rocks Terrace project, expressed similar sentiments. McKees Rocks HOPE VI called for replacing 288 units in 17 existing buildings with new housing of 146 rental units and 32 for-sale units.

"I would completely disagree with the report when it comes to Allegheny County," MacFann said. "You just look at McKees Rocks Terrace site, and it's completely untrue. I question the credentials of the person writing the report. We helped to revitalize those communities."

However, feelings among residents are mixed.

Some believe the new HOPE VI developments are confining. They say they live under a microscope, subject to overburdening rules, regulations and cameras.

"I feel like I live in a concentration camp," said Margaret Peoples, 47, looking outside her window and pointing to two cameras on a building in Oak Hill complex. "It's as if rules are being made as you go along."

Tamika Scott, on the other hand, who was picking up her niece from the pool in Oak Hill recently, said she felt safe because of the rules. Scott, 30, who lives in Oak Hill with her teenage son, said those measures have weeded out the troublemakers. Scott had lived in Allequippa Terrace for seven years before moving into Oak Hill four years ago.

"I think it's a lot better for the kids," Scott said. "Before there was a lot of drugs and violence. The change helped get a lot of the bad people out. The children can go outside and play."