Wednesday, September 01, 1999
Laurel Homes residents fear displacement
BY DAN KLEPAL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Urine stains the hallway floor in Charaliner North's apartment building at Laurel Homes, public-housing complex in the city's West End.
Crack cocaine and marijuana are sold outside her hallway, which is shared by all the residents of the building, and she often lays electrical tape around her apartment with the sticky side up to catch the cockroaches.
Still, Ms. North doesn't want to leave.
Ms. North says it would be a mistake to tear down 21 buildings — a total of 970 apartments — in Laurel Homes and replace them with townhomes for people of different income levels.
But that's just what the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) has in mind, after announcing Tuesday it will receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
$35M awarded for project
Andrew Cuomo, secretary of HUD, announced to a room of about 200 people Tuesday afternoon that the city has been awarded a $35 million grant for the project.
The plan is to eventually have 585 new or renovated units when the dust clears.
It will be a combination of public housing, low-income housing and privately owned townhomes.
Ms. North, 42, thinks the project will leave some of her neighbors out in the cold.
“New buildings won't stop anyone from shooting up or smoking dope,” said Ms. North, who was forced out of her apartment in nearby Lincoln Court because of a similar reclamation project.
But other residents and city officials think the new buildings will stop much of the trouble in Laurel Homes.
The new units will feature front and back yards, garages and air conditioning. And, officials say, no tenants in good standing will be left homeless because of the project.
CMHA Executive Director Donald Troendle said residents who have not violated terms of their leases — which include staying out of jail — and pay their rent on time will be temporarily relocated to other housing.
Those residents will be guaranteed an apartment in the new units, if they want.
"We have no-man's land'
And, Mr. Troendle said, shiny new buildings can cure many of the neighborhood's ills.
“People will not allow someone to stand in their front yard and deal drugs, because it's their front yard,” Mr. Troendle said. “Right now, we don't have yards, we have a no-man's land.”
Many longtime residents of Laurel Homes have been working for years to clean up their neighborhood.
Shirley Colbert, 60, the president of the residents council, has lived in the complex since 1964 and grew up across the street in Lincoln Court.
“If we show people they have a community, then it becomes their responsibility to keep the community,” Ms. Colbert said. “This project will give us our community back.”
Only one in four applicants for the grant are awarded any money, and one in 12 are awarded the full $35 million, Mr. Cuomo said.
The money comes from $571 million in the Hope VI program aimed at building public, affordable and market-rate housing in 21 cities.
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