HOUSING AUTHORITY Making progress toward Hope VI's summer plans
The project will include recreation and retail space.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Work on the next phase of a wide-ranging $30 million project to build and renovate public housing units on Youngstown's North Side could begin as early as July.
Patrick Howard, director of development for the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority, gave a report on progress on the Hope VI program at Thursday's authority board meeting.
Pending approval by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the construction of 30 single-family ownership houses on the city's North Side will start in July, Howard said.
A 40-unit, $5.5 million Arlington Gardens senior citizens complex opened in the area at Wirt Street and Park Avenue last September.
Rental units
The Hope VI project also calls for the construction of 38 rental units, mostly duplexes and triplexes, to be built later this year or at the beginning of 2006. These will be located in the area of Wirt and Griffith Streets.
The finished project should also include a recreation center and a retail business, probably a grocery store, Howard said.
Howard said that the tearing down of "distressed" housing and the building of new units is only part of the process of transforming the area in the Hope VI project.
"We're asking residents to make a commitment to improving the quality of life," Howard said. Residents will be able to participate in programs which provide job training and training for entrepeneurship skills.
Participants in housing authority programs can already take classes through the authority on "financial literacy" and how to buy and finance a home.
Deadline
The project must be completed by 2007 to remain eligible for federal funding.
In other business, the board heard a report from finance director Gary Cameron. The authority operated at a deficit of nearly $300,000 in April. Cameron said this was due to April being a three payday month for employees and the disbursement of an annual payment of $200,000 in settlement of a class action lawsuit three years ago. Two payments remain, authority executive director Eugenia Atkinson said.
The board also approved a resolution allowing the authority to begin deducting health insurance premiums from employees' paychecks starting in July. The authority had previously paid the premiums.
The board voted not to meet in June unless a special meeting was needed to transact business.