How excited would you be to discover that your dilapidated housing community will now be transformed into a beautiful and dynamic apartment complex? A ceremony at Legends Park on Sept. 30 was both a grand opening and part of a grand design. This site of the former Dixie Homes public housing project is another achievement of Hope VI. The federal program has now replaced five troubled public housing areas in Memphis with mixed-income communities, detailed architecture, vibrant landscaping and several amenities (including a washer/dryer in almost every unit).
Legends Park is bounded by Poplar Avenue on the south, Ayers Street on the west, I-40 on the north and Decatur Street on the east. In 2005 the Memphis Housing Authority was awarded $20 million in federal HOPE VI funding for the project. The creation of Legends Park is taking place in conjunction with a $235 million expansion at nearby Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center, which includes the tearing down of the Memphis Mental Health Center and formation of a new bed tower on the site at the corner of Poplar and Manassas.
Hope VI is a major HUD plan meant to revitalize the worst public housing projects into mixed-income developments. Its philosophy is predominantly based on New Urbanism and the concept of defensible space, which is the method of influencing negative social behavior through architectural and urban design. The program began in 1992, with formal recognition in law in 1998. As of 2005, the program had distributed $5.8 billion through 446 federal block grants to cities for the developments, with the highest individual grant being $50 million. HOPE VI has included a variety of grant programs including: Revitalization, Demolition, Main Street, and Planning grant programs. As of June 1, 2010 there have been 254 HOPE VI Revitalization grants awarded to 132 housing authorities since 1993, totaling more than $6.1 billion.
The apparent problem that has occurred is the displacement of former residents of the previous public housing projects in Memphis that have been awarded block grants. The Hope VI displacement has been slowly occurring in nearly all-major cities as well. The public/private Hope VI developments are much nicer in appearance and amenities, but offer a small fraction of the public-housing apartments of the old units they replace. Efforts to ensure that these new developments are mixed-income have raised concerns about whether families at the lowest end of the income scale will have access to these units. According to planners, Hope VI doesn't solve the critical housing problems of the very poor; it worsens them by making fewer units accessible.
The term “affordable” is used very freely; it can sometimes soar as high as 60 or 70 percent of the area median income. Hope VI is still displacing more families than there are new units being built, the remaining families will be given Section 8 vouchers, and the rest will be placed in other existing public housing units. So what do we say to the families in Memphis that had high hopes for modern housing? Oops sorry? No. Look them in the eye and explain to them why their hopes and prayers weren’t answered. As planners, our job is to establish ourselves as “the voice of the people,” connecting communities with the proper resources and organizations.
Hope VI is a great program, but while we were in awe of watching bulldozers and cranes being hoisted in the air, we failed to realize how many families we were releasing back out into poverty. They do not deserve such separation from the rest of society. There are additional federal programs that help support low-income families and neighborhoods, and we must stress to them the importance of a healthy standard of living. There are many options available, but none can even be considered until community leaders and members maximize these opportunities.
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