To the cheers of residents, Baltimore officials announced this week that they have received $ 22.7 million in federal funds for the second phase of their plan to solve the problems of crime-plagued public housing developments by demolishing the structures.
"What all this means is those old buildings are coming down, and what will be coming in their place are row homes, town houses and a better school. A nice neighborhood where people can say with pride, 'I come from Lexington Heights,' " Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke told the boisterous crowd of Lexington Terrace public housing residents.
Baltimore will demolish the five high-rises and 22 low-rise buildings at Lexington Terrace complex, which were built in the 1950s. The entire project is expected to cost $ 68 million, with the rest of the money coming from the state and the city, according to the city housing authority.
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Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Boston also received grants, Schmoke said.
The complex's 677 units will be replaced by 203 town houses, which will be rented, and another 113 town houses that will be sold to the public.
In addition to the two-story homes, a mid-rise 100-unit apartment building for the elderly, a child day-care center, a recreation and community center and a business center will be built. The business center also will house a program to provide training and generate jobs for public housing residents.
The Lafayette Courts housing projects in East Baltimore were demolished in spectacular fashion in August by Controlled Demolition Inc. Those projects will also be replaced with town homes and row houses.
City Housing Commissioner Daniel Henson said the idea to demolish the high-rise buildings came from the residents themselves.
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"Yes, they need to come down, I could have a party myself right now," Lexington Terrace resident Angela Fleming, 26, said. "I'm happy, especially for the children. Now we won't have to worry when we send them down to play. We can be right there on the porch watching them."
Resident Veronica Boyd, 33, said she was happy to be moving out of the complex. "I'll get my stuff packed, and I'm ready to roll," she said.
The residents will be moved into new housing in late December and the buildings are expected to be demolished in March, Henson said.
"The plan is to provide a team of developers with a finished site," Henson said. "The only thing left standing will be a school."
Housing for Migrants
When tenants move into the Elizabeth Cornish Landing apartments in Bridgeville, Del., they're taught how to flush the toilets and turn on the fan over the electric stove.
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They need the orientation because the furnished apartments, built for migrant and seasonal farm workers, are a far cry from substandard migrant camps that often have outdoor toilets and no running water.
The $ 2 million federally funded apartment complex was built and is managed by Delmarva Rural Ministries Inc., a Dover-based agency that provides social services, including health care and English-language classes, to migrants on the Delmarva Peninsula.
"Farm workers, as much as anyone else, deserve decent housing. They should not be relegated to being homeless and living under crowded and unhealthy conditions," Debra Singletary, Delmarva's chief executive, said at an opening ceremony at the 34-unit complex this week.
Share this articleShareThe complex began taking tenants in July. Rent is based on 30 percent of a worker's income and tenants receive a federal subsidy for electricity.
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There are 8,000 migrant workers on the peninsula, with 5,000 on the Virginia Eastern Shore, 1,500 in Delaware and 2,000 on the Maryland Eastern Shore.
Migrants are defined as workers who come to a region for a limited period and are involved in planting or harvesting crops before moving on.
"This is, in my mind, a down payment on the commitment we have to farm laborers," said Maureen Kennedy, administrator for Rural Housing and Community Development Services in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"American agriculture is carried on the backs of farm laborers," she said. "It seems to me we really owe it to those folks that they have warm and dry housing after a long day in the field."
The new apartments are identical to the Leonard Apartments, a 34-unit complex built six years ago with federal funds by Delmarva in Salisbury, Md.
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The two complexes are the only publicly funded housing for migrants and seasonal workers on the peninsula. There are plans to build another apartment complex in Eastville, Va.
All other housing for such workers is privately owned and usually located on the farm where the migrants work.
The apartments and private housing are a significant improvement over conditions in the early to mid-1980s when private labor camps were being shut downby local health departments for unsanitary living conditions.
At the time, a virus swept through migrant populations from Florida to New York, causing several deaths and drawing attention to labor camp conditions.
"Then, they truly were, for the most part, deplorable, horrendous," Singletary said. "People were living in shanties and school buses converted to homes."
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Deal Set for Snowshoe
A Japanese company has agreed to sell Snowshoe, West Virginia's largest ski resort, to a Canadian developer for $ 37 million, a company official said this week.
Intrawest Corp. of Vancouver, British Columbia, is expected to complete the purchase of Snowshoe-Silver Creek Mountain Resort from Tokyo Tower Development Co., in November, according to executive vice president Dan Jarvis.
"It's the sort of resort with a very strong market position in the Southeastern United States," he said. "It's very well managed, and we were attracted to that. It's very much a destination resort where people come for extended stays. That's the type of resort we focus on."
About 400,000 skiers, many from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and other southern states, visit the Pocahontas County facility each year, said Snowshoe president Danny Seme.
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