Renovations to housing complex should be completed next year

An 18-year-old man was killed in the Warren housing complex in April 2008.

STAFF report

WARREN — The Hampshire House apartments on Fifth Street Southwest, a housing complex that has seen its share of violent activity, is likely to become safer and nicer when a $6.5 million renovation is complete sometime next year.

David B. Orlean, owner of the Orlean Co. of Beachwood, told Trumbull County commissioners Tuesday the project will result in improvements averaging $25,000 for each of the 150 apartments.

County commissioners are expected to approve a measure at their meeting today to issue Housing Revenue Bonds that would allow the Orlean Co. to secure low-interest financing and federal tax credits to pay for the renovations.

Orlean said the project involves new roofing, parking-lot paving, a larger community building, new fencing, security-camera installation, locks in common areas, improved air conditioning and other improvements. Some of the fencing at the complex has been damaged over the years, Orlean said.

The Orlean Co. owns and runs the apartments, which are occupied by low- to moderate-income residents who live there at a reduced price through a subsidy from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The apartments are monitored and overseen by the Trumbull County Metropolitan Housing Authority.

Robert D. Labes, an attorney with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey of Cleveland, the bonding company handling the sale, said the commissioners’ involvement in the project does not require the county to become financially liable for the money being borrowed.

Orlean said the renovations likely will not result in an increased cost to the residents, and they will not be required to move out of the complex during the renovation.

The complex has been the site of repeated violence, including an incident in March in which a 21-year-old Fifth Street Southwest man was hit by bullets while sitting in a vehicle on Lane Drive, and a baby inside the vehicle narrowly was missed by the shots.

In April 2008, 18-year-old Kendel Cherry of Elm Road Northeast was shot to death and found on a sidewalk at the complex, which city officials at the time called a high-crime area.

The renovations will begin in about six months and take about six to eight months to complete.

The apartment complex, formerly known as Highland Homes, was built in 1975 and 1976. It is just west of Highland Avenue Southwest and about a mile south of West Market Street.

Commissioner Paul Heltzel said officials have been pleased with the improvements made at the Royal Mall Apartments on state Route 46 in Niles that were done through a similar bond sale.