Tuesday, August 31, 1999
$35M housing grant expected
Laurel Homes targeted for replacement
BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati's housing authority is expected to receive $35 million today from the federal government to tear down and replace the Laurel Homes public housing project in the West End.
The grant will allow the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) to demolish 21 buildings containing 970 apartments in Laurel Homes.
The Laurel Homes plan, coupled with the demolition and renovation of the neighboring Lincoln Court project that began earlier this year, will dramatically change the face of the West End and of public housing in the Tristate.
Once home to some 5,000 low-income and working poor people, Laurel Homes and Lincoln Court will return as a smaller community of townhouses for people of different incomes in the next century.
Cincinnati Mayor Roxanne Qualls and CMHA Director Donald Troendle will participate in a news conference at 2:15 p.m. today at the CMHA office at 1635 Western Ave. Andrew Cuomo, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), will join by telephone, sources said Monday.
The new Laurel Homes will have 630 units, including 130 apartments recently renovated in three buildings at Linn and Liberty streets, as well as 85 others that will be built or renovated off-site throughout the West End.
Before renovation, Laurel Homes had about 1,100 units.
The city has pledged more than $15 million to the rebuilding of Laurel Homes and Lincoln Court.
Laurel Homes opened in 1938, and Lincoln Court was completed in 1942.
The grants are part of a HUD program called Hope VI, which finances only revitalization and demolition projects.
Under Hope VI since 1993, HUD has approved the tearing down of 53,000 units of the nation's worst public housing and created, it said, new housing opportunities for 72,000 families.
One of HUD's Hope VI goals is to reduce concentrations of poverty by creating mixed-income units and spreading low-income housing throughout entire metropolitan areas.
Last year, CMHA won the $31.1 million from HUD to demolish and rebuild Lincoln Court, a 52-building public housing complex across Ezzard Charles Drive from Laurel Homes.
Ten of Lincoln Court's buildings are down, and 12 others will be demolished by the end of October.
The new Lincoln Court will have about 500 townhouses and apartments, down from 886 units.
In May, homeless advocates demonstrated at City Hall about what they said was a growing shortage of low-income housing throughout the county.
“Our issue is we're demolishing housing units and not replacing them one for one,” said Donald Whitehead, director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.
Baby found in trash had lived
Health department may recommend shellfish menu warning
Questions and answers on bacteria risks
City's OK for library sign long overdue
Faithful awaiting visit by Mary
Rape evidence scrutinized for link to other assaults
Shooting rage sends man to jail
$35M housing grant expected
Fewer students will be busing
Ky. leads special-ed test efforts
Schools can raise scores by exclusion
United Way hoping for record sum
Butler sheriff folds his jail tent
City may require registration of vicious pets
Defense attempts to raise doubts about MU fliers
Fire that killed man may be arson
Free roses continue Good Neighbor Day tradition
Mason grows by 717 pupils
Party marks highway progress
Woman in shed died of overdose
Emery fix-up in the wings
Latest men's magazines gnarly, not nice
Celebrity look-alikes fool folks
GET TO IT
18-year-old held in robbery, slaying
A tradition folds at Harvest Home Parade
Bail in stabbing stands at $250,000
Cruisers add flotation device
Fernald contractor wins praise
Louisville man heads Gore's Ky. campaign
Lucas readies plan on schools
Monroe now under one roof
Postal worker claims reverse discrimination
Prison guard faces more drug charges
Rabid bat found in pet hospital
TRISTATE DIGEST
