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Hope can revive an asphalt acre
$20m HUD grant to transform Washington-Beech complex
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | March 22, 2008
Boston won a $20 million federal grant this week to redevelop a Roslindale public housing complex that has been plagued with shootings and violence in recent months.
The Washington-Beech development, a 57-year-old complex of brick buildings crisscrossed by concrete and blacktop, will be razed and rebuilt as a landscaped village of mixed-income housing, according to city plans. Residents will be relocated during construction and will have the opportunity to return when work is completed.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino learned about the grant Monday night when he attended a dinner reception at the White House. President Bush told him Boston would receive the money, city officials said yesterday.
It is one of only five such awards, known as Hope VI grants, given out across the nation this year by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"I'm so happy about this," Menino said yesterday after the agency's official announcement.
The cost of redevelopment is expected to be $100.7 million, which includes $26.6 million in city funds, $4.5 million from the state, and $49.9 million from private sources, including donations and grants.
The mayor said he has been looking for ways to improve Washington-Beech since he was a city councilor representing the area in the early 1990s. The city applied twice before for Hope VI grants to redevelop the complex, but was denied.
Boston Housing Authority officials said they hope that replacing the 266 low-income rental units at the site with mixed-income townhouses will help alleviate the crime that can breed amid concentrated poverty.
"This timing could not be better," BHA administrator Sandra Henriquez said yesterday.
Five people have been shot in the vicinity of the Washington-Beech development since November.
Last week, a bullet grazed the neck of a woman in her 30s, and another pierced the chest of a teenage boy at the complex, which is across the street from Phineas Bates Elementary School. Both victims survived.
In January, two men were wounded by gunfire, and another was killed as they sat in a limousine outside the Washington-Beech development. They had been returning from a funeral for another slaying victim.
In November, a 19-year-old man was shot four times as he sat in a cab at Washington-Beech. He survived the attack.
Tenants interviewed yesterday said they are excited about the redevelopment grant. They blamed the recent violence on tenants who have moved into Washington-Beech during the past 18 months.
"We have some crazy people out here right now," said Meena Carr, a tenant at the development since 2001.
Carr, 66, lives at Washington-Beech with her daughter and two grandsons, ages 7 and 8. She says the development is rife with roaches and rickety plumbing and electrical wiring.
Carr said she is looking forward not only to new buildings but to lush landscaping on the grounds.
"One thing that I think we miss here in Washington-Beech is trees, flowers, and shrubs," she said.
Plans for the new development call for construction of 185 rental apartments and four townhouses that will be sold to owner-occupants at the site.
A rendering depicts rows of three- and four-story townhouse-type buildings spread over four square blocks bordered by Washington and Beech streets.
In addition, the plan includes providing 80 rental-assistance subsidies for apartments elsewhere in the city, 50 grants to help cover down payments for first-time home buyers, and funding the construction of six houses elsewhere in the city that will be sold to owner-occupants.
In all, the redevelopment will provide 336 affordable housing units, city officials said.
The new rental apartments at the Washington-Beech site will be available to tenants with an annual income of up to 80 percent of the area median income, or $66,150 for a family of four.
The income requirements will be tiered, with some units set aside for tenants earning certain amounts. One tier, for example, could be those who earn 0 to 20 percent of the median income, another for those earning 20 to 40 percent, and so on, officials said. Currently, there are no tiers, and most tenants, if not all, are on the lower end of the scale, they said.
BHA spokeswoman Lydia Agro said city officials expect to begin relocating residents from the development in the next six to 12 months, and they hope to break ground on the new construction within two years.
HUD officials said Boston was selected from 29 cities that applied for the Hope VI grants. Other cities that received grants this time are Washington, D.C.; Fayetteville, N.C.; New Orleans; and Phoenix.
This is Boston's fourth such award. The city used the other grants to redevelop the Maverick Gardens complex in East Boston, Mission Main in Mission Hill, and Orchard Gardens in Roxbury.
"This funding not only gives cities the resources to build quality affordable housing in these communities; it also improves the quality of life of the residents who live in the public housing," HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said in a statement.
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
$20m HUD grant to transform Washington-Beech complex
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | March 22, 2008
Boston won a $20 million federal grant this week to redevelop a Roslindale public housing complex that has been plagued with shootings and violence in recent months.
The Washington-Beech development, a 57-year-old complex of brick buildings crisscrossed by concrete and blacktop, will be razed and rebuilt as a landscaped village of mixed-income housing, according to city plans. Residents will be relocated during construction and will have the opportunity to return when work is completed.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino learned about the grant Monday night when he attended a dinner reception at the White House. President Bush told him Boston would receive the money, city officials said yesterday.
It is one of only five such awards, known as Hope VI grants, given out across the nation this year by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"I'm so happy about this," Menino said yesterday after the agency's official announcement.
The cost of redevelopment is expected to be $100.7 million, which includes $26.6 million in city funds, $4.5 million from the state, and $49.9 million from private sources, including donations and grants.
The mayor said he has been looking for ways to improve Washington-Beech since he was a city councilor representing the area in the early 1990s. The city applied twice before for Hope VI grants to redevelop the complex, but was denied.
Boston Housing Authority officials said they hope that replacing the 266 low-income rental units at the site with mixed-income townhouses will help alleviate the crime that can breed amid concentrated poverty.
"This timing could not be better," BHA administrator Sandra Henriquez said yesterday.
Five people have been shot in the vicinity of the Washington-Beech development since November.
Last week, a bullet grazed the neck of a woman in her 30s, and another pierced the chest of a teenage boy at the complex, which is across the street from Phineas Bates Elementary School. Both victims survived.
In January, two men were wounded by gunfire, and another was killed as they sat in a limousine outside the Washington-Beech development. They had been returning from a funeral for another slaying victim.
In November, a 19-year-old man was shot four times as he sat in a cab at Washington-Beech. He survived the attack.
Tenants interviewed yesterday said they are excited about the redevelopment grant. They blamed the recent violence on tenants who have moved into Washington-Beech during the past 18 months.
"We have some crazy people out here right now," said Meena Carr, a tenant at the development since 2001.
Carr, 66, lives at Washington-Beech with her daughter and two grandsons, ages 7 and 8. She says the development is rife with roaches and rickety plumbing and electrical wiring.
Carr said she is looking forward not only to new buildings but to lush landscaping on the grounds.
"One thing that I think we miss here in Washington-Beech is trees, flowers, and shrubs," she said.
Plans for the new development call for construction of 185 rental apartments and four townhouses that will be sold to owner-occupants at the site.
A rendering depicts rows of three- and four-story townhouse-type buildings spread over four square blocks bordered by Washington and Beech streets.
In addition, the plan includes providing 80 rental-assistance subsidies for apartments elsewhere in the city, 50 grants to help cover down payments for first-time home buyers, and funding the construction of six houses elsewhere in the city that will be sold to owner-occupants.
In all, the redevelopment will provide 336 affordable housing units, city officials said.
The new rental apartments at the Washington-Beech site will be available to tenants with an annual income of up to 80 percent of the area median income, or $66,150 for a family of four.
The income requirements will be tiered, with some units set aside for tenants earning certain amounts. One tier, for example, could be those who earn 0 to 20 percent of the median income, another for those earning 20 to 40 percent, and so on, officials said. Currently, there are no tiers, and most tenants, if not all, are on the lower end of the scale, they said.
BHA spokeswoman Lydia Agro said city officials expect to begin relocating residents from the development in the next six to 12 months, and they hope to break ground on the new construction within two years.
HUD officials said Boston was selected from 29 cities that applied for the Hope VI grants. Other cities that received grants this time are Washington, D.C.; Fayetteville, N.C.; New Orleans; and Phoenix.
This is Boston's fourth such award. The city used the other grants to redevelop the Maverick Gardens complex in East Boston, Mission Main in Mission Hill, and Orchard Gardens in Roxbury.
"This funding not only gives cities the resources to build quality affordable housing in these communities; it also improves the quality of life of the residents who live in the public housing," HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said in a statement.
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
