BHA to launch a broad upgrade of public housing
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | April 6, 2007
The Boston Housing Authority is launching a major upgrade of public housing developments across the city that will eventually include razing two developments and re-creating them as landscaped villages of mixed-income housing.
The $88 million first phase is slated to begin later this year, with infrastructure repairs at 15 developments, including Bromley-Heath in Jamaica Plain, Bunker Hill in Charlestown, and Mary Ellen McCormack and Old Colony in South Boston.
In the second phase, which housing officials hope to start in 2010, two barracks-style complexes built in the 1950s, Washington-Beech in Roslindale and Orient Heights in East Boston, are to be replaced with what are descrbed as "attractive communities" of townhouse and mid-rise units.
The new developments will include residents with a broad range of incomes, part of a nationwide trend away from homogeneous low-income developments. The agency has completed similar makeovers in recent years of five other public housing developments, in South Boston, East Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mission Hill.
During renovations, residents will be relocated to other public housing units or be given Section 8 vouchers for renting on the private market or, for short-term repairs, be put up in hotels.
Lydia Agro, spokeswoman for the BHA, said the agency will provide relocation help for residents, including assistance with school transfers and other logistics.
When the new developments are completed, they may have slightly fewer public housing units than the current 593 at Orient Heights and Washington-Beech combined, BHA officials said. If that turns out to be the case, some residents may be offered units at other developments, or they could continue using Section 8 vouchers instead of a unit in the public housing development.
The rehabilitation plans sprang from a yearlong assessment by BHA officials of the 54-federally funded developments the housing agency manages in Boston.
With federal funding cutbacks leaving just $24 million a year for capital improvements when the developments needed an estimated $500 million in repairs, the officials said they undertook the assessment to prioritize maintenance issues and look for ways to save money in the long run.
A 10-page draft of the agency's plan released to the Globe yesterday includes energy efficiency initiatives such as the installation of solar panels and weather stripping in some developments and major repairs such as new roofs and doors in others.
The plan also includes development of a mixed-income, assisted-living facility and conversion of some elderly and disabled public housing to Section 8 housing, a switch that will not displace tenants but would bring the BHA several hundreds of dollars more per unit per month.
A major conclusion of the assessment was that the agency needed to update much of the housing and make major repairs rather than waiting for the developments to fall into further decay.
"It would be irresponsible for us not to try to do this," said the BHA administrator, Sandra B. Henriquez. "We need to ensure the long-term viability of our housing stock."
Some of the developments seem frozen in time, with fixtures and furnishings in some units dating to the 1930s.
At Washington-Beech, the kitchen in Russel Ruffin's second-floor unit would be a perfect movie set, circa 1952, with a cast-iron sink and sideboard.
It's not entirely functional, though, with dodgy plumbing that has been known to send runoff from his washing machine down through the pipes and bubbling up in the toilet of the unit below.
As part of the first phase of upgrades, 14 developments -- including Bunker Hill, Bromley-Heath, Franklin Field in Dorchester and Lenox in the South End -- would receive between $45 million and $50 million worth of upgrades to energy and water systems, such as low-flow toilets, weather-stripping, heating and electrical controls, and lighting.
Housing officials say that energy companies will pay for much of those upgrades in exchange for long-term service contracts. Washington-Beech is to get some minor upgrades.
Bunker Hill in Charlestown is to get new roofs, unit doors, and a security system. Mary Ellen McCormack is slated for brickwork repairs, new unit doors, and new exterior stoops and entryways and Old Colony is to get new unit doors and upgraded security.
All three would get new bathroom plumbing, fixtures, and exhaust pipes.
In addition, various developments for the elderly will get fire alarm and elevator upgrades.
The first phase is to be funded by an $88 million bond issue the agency hopes to initiate by fall. The bond, if approved by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, would be the largest debt ever taken on by the agency.
Henriquez said that the plan is still in draft form and that she hopes to get input from housing advocates, residents, and community leaders before finalizing it in the coming months.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he hopes the plan will increase tenants' pride in their homes and move one step closer to fully integrating subsidized housing developments with surrounding neighborhoods.
"That's the way we have to go with public housing," Menino said yesterday. "We want them to have something they can be proud of."
Councilor Sam Yoon, who reviewed a copy of the plan yesterday, said it is clear that public housing in the city "absolutely needs an infusion of capital."
"With federal resources shrinking, the BHA needs to be extraordinarily creative to bring its housing up to basic, minimum standards for working poor people," said Yoon, who chairs the council's Housing Committee. "I applaud their efforts."
Donovan Slack can be reached at
dslack@globe.com.
? Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
