Lexington, KY - As Austin Simms took a look around at the progress on eight spec homes on Julia Way, he was pleased to see some of the owners of the home-building companies on the job site.
"One of the most exciting things," he said, "is seeing the builders taking an interest in transforming a whole neighborhood."
Julia Way is in the Equestrian View subdivision of what used to be the Bluegrass-Aspendale neighborhood. That neighborhood is being transformed from a run-down, crime-ridden, inner-city eye-sore to a community that will still have low-income housing, but with the goal of being nearly indistinguishable from a new development on the outskirts of Lexington.
Simms is helping lead that transformation as the executive director of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Housing Authority, a position he has held for 32 years. The transformation is being made possible by a HOPE VI grant through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
"We applied for that grant four times," Simms said, as he recalled questions about whether the grant application process was worth the effort after three rejections. The grant and housing project are both vastly different from the early days of government housing projects and urban renewal.
Gone are the days of getting millions of dollars from HUD to build row upon row of identical red brick homes or apartment buildings.
"You could go to any city and point out: 'That's public housing,'" Simms said of the old days. Paint suppliers even carried a color called "HUD white" for the interiors of government housing. Now the apartment buildings going up in the neighborhood are a mix of size and appearance, including duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes.
Simms and his staff were able to sit down with architects at a computer and customize different exterior styles and colors. There are more porches and now there will be balconies on some units. Builders are required to use at least two different materials on the fronts of homes.
Simms boasts that the work being done in the HOPE VI project area "is as aesthetically pleasing as the private market."
The Housing Authority worked hard to avoid the "cookie cutter" look for the reborn Bluegrass-Aspendale. For the single family homes that are being built, many are the same designs being built in other neighborhoods. The difference in making them affordable for potential buyers with lower incomes is the price of the land that the home will sit on.
And as Simms points out, it is not just the design and construction of the homes and apartment buildings that is different from the old days; it is the way the Housing Authority works with the grant money it gets.
"Some people say '$20 million grant, what's the big deal?' The big deal is that it allows us to leverage it," Simms said.
The Housing Authority estimates that the $20 million HOPE VI grant has been leveraged into about $80 million for the agency.
That includes using part of the Bluegrass-Aspendale area for 102 single-family homes that will be sold for private ownership. There are income restrictions on 93 of the 102 homes to be developed. The Housing Authority develops the design criteria with builders who are limited in what they can charge for the home once it is built. The city is helping buy down the cost of the homes, but Simms and his staff see two big benefits to the city. One is that property that had not been on the tax rolls will eventually generate tax revenue for the city. Another is the ripple effect that the money spent on construction has through the Lexington economy. The city's buy-down program also comes with a five-year ownership commitment from the buyer, which helps stabilize an area "that was probably the most depressed in the city," Simms said.
Another example the Housing Authority's leverage was the sale of 12 acres of land in the neighborhood to Fayette County Public Schools for a new school.
The school, William Wells Brown Elementary, which includes space for a community center, is now the anchor for the HOPE VI housing area.
The Housing Authority has used the community center space to hold two home ownership fairs, providing useful information to prospective home buyers in the neighborhood.
Simms said cooperation from the school district, the city and other partners is key to making the neighborhood more appealing and making its revitalization a long-term success.
In addition to creating the community space in the school, Simms cited the city's commitment to developing roads to improve the access to the neighborhood and the neighborhood's access to downtown.
LFUCG also provides social services for the Housing Authority clients, providing support on issues such as credit and career counseling and educational opportunities for adults.
Other key partners for the Housing Authority are: