BY CAMERON McWHIRTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Federal housing officials have chosen 22 cities to receive a total of $507 million in Hope VI grant money to demolish and rebuild public housing.
But housing officials released no word Tuesday on whether it was granting Cincinnati's request for $31 million to support a $62 million demolition and reconstruction of the West End's Lincoln Court apartments. Word should should come within less than two weeks.
Officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said the announcements would be made personally in each city by HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo in coming days.
Mr. Cuomo kicked off a cross-country tour Tuesday by doling out $23 million to Los Angeles, $12.7 million to Oakland and $25.7 million to Denver. The timing is unusual, coming one day after President Clinton admitted to a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Last year the grants were not awarded until mid-October.
Cincinnati's housing authority has applied for millions to demolish Lincoln Court apartments, one of the city's largest and oldest housing projects.
Donald Troendle, executive director of the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), said he was surprised the grants were being awarded so quickly, and it made him hopeful Cincinnati would get money this year. In the previous two years, CMHA requests for Hope VI money have been turned down.
"We're pleasantly surprised that the department has reviewed the Hope VI applications so quickly," he said. "We believe CMHA has a very competitive application this year."
Stan Vosper, a HUD spokesman on the Hope VI grants, would not say whether Cincinnati received the grant, but he said Mr. Cuomo would be traveling to two cities a day to award the money.
In late June, Cincinnati City Council voted to provide $6.2 million of its own federal housing money for the CMHA plan to demolish Lincoln Court and replace it with a smaller, mixed-income neighborhood. Some 2,000 people would be affected by the construction.
Councilman Charlie Winburn, an opponent of the project since CMHA proposed it in June, said the early announcement was "political." He said he will now support the project, but with the condition that CMHA, an independent authority, work with the city to secure rights for residents and neighbors in the West End.
"I've done all I can do to stop it so now I might as well support it," he said. "But I'll support it with conditions."
The CMHA application calls for demolishing all 53 buildings at Lincoln Court and building 500 new housing units.
Some would be market-rate houses and rental units.
