THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 29, 1994 TAG: 9407290568
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 111 lines
For six years, the city has struggled to find money to bulldoze rows of World War II-era cinder-block hovels, clear out the rubble and build modern housing for the poor.
Hundreds of row houses in what was once called Foundation Park have been demolished. Nearly 300 new apartments and townhouses have risen in their place near Campostella Road.
But blight remains in what is now named Campostella Square: About 350 of the old row homes are still standing. Only half are occupied by steady tenants; many others are used as hide-outs for vagrants and drug dealers.
Many of those cinder-block houses may be demolished in just a few months if the City Council approves a $700,000 plan to relocate families and then tear down the vacant section.
``We have people living in a dangerous situation, and I don't believe the city should allow that to continue,'' said Edmund R. Carrera, executive director of the Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and the sponsor of the idea.
``Any time you have vacant houses, you have problems. Kids get in and play with matches. Drug dealers use them.''
Carrera outlined the demolition plan during a joint meeting Thursday between the City Council and the city's housing commissioners. Carrera, who took over as director in April, explained why he wants to move quickly.
During the past two months, he said, there have been three or four fires in the row houses. The fires start in vacant units but rapidly flare up to the roof and rip across several homes.
Last month, he said, a teenage girl was dragged into a vacant unit and raped.
The demolition plan for Campostella Square only provides money to tear down ugliness. It does not fund rebuilding.
Redevelopment of the entire project will require millions in public funds, and housing officials say it could take more than a decade.
The housing authority's long-range master plan for the area, which is still under review, calls for a total of 551 new units. That includes the 292 units already built and 112 townhouses and apartments that are scheduled for completion by May 1995.
There are also designs for 112 single-family homes and an 11-acre park, but there is no money to get those off the drawing board.
Residents interviewed Thursday evening held little allegiance to the white cinder-block community where they live.
``Tear them down - they ain't no good,'' said Diane, 35, who declined to give her last name. She lives with her two small children on Windy Road and complained of roaches, rats and bad plumbing there. The homes in her neighborhood are so damp, she said, that the walls will not hold a coat of paint. Mildew is a constant problem.
While many residents approved of the demolition plans, they said that they deserve another place to live or help in finding a new home.
They would get two choices under Carrera's proposal.
If they want to stay in the neighborhood, they may move to another of the cinder-block homes in one section that will consolidate the occupied dwellings. Residents who remain there will get the first crack at moving into 112 new apartments and townhouses that the authority expects to complete by next spring.
Low-income residents who want to leave may qualify for vouchers, which can be used to subsidize rent payments at apartments around the city. For instance, a family of four cannot make more than $31,900 a year after deductions to qualify for the vouchers.
Carrera said that the authority's staff will walk door to door, talking to every resident about the proposed demolition project. He said he recognizes that they may fear that the bulldozers will leave them homeless.
Carrera said he intends to preserve the community. ``Once you redevelop an area like this, you don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water,'' he said. ``Or else, once you get it built, you'll have none of the original people there.''
Currently, 196 of the row houses are occupied, with residents paying between $170 and $250 a month in rent. There are 353 remaining original row houses.
The city has made a long-standing promise to rejuvenate the area, which was once one of the worst slums in the region.
But other areas around the city may compete for the redevelopment money. On Thursday, Mayor William E. Ward mentioned Crestwood Manor and sections of South Norfolk as areas that need revitalization.
Right now, the housing authority can't make its debt payments on the Campostella property. It suspended interest payments on the project in January and now owes about $250,000 to the property's former owner, Chairman Walter W. Berry said. The authority is negotiating with the owner on a payment plan.
Several council members, particularly Vice Mayor Arthur L. Dwyer, said they are prepared to support Carrera's demolition approach.
But Councilman W. Joe Newman suggested that it would be better to move more swiftly and perhaps bulldoze all of the row houses at once.
That wouldn't be ``an ethical thing to do,'' Carrera said, because there aren't enough vacant apartments in the city to relocate the residents. He said the people would scatter and the neighborhood would be destroyed.
``It's unethical to let people live in that pigsty for so long,'' Newman countered.
``We are talking about two different worlds,'' Carrera said. ``One is the world you live in. When I walk into these people's homes, they do not think of them as pigsties.'' MEMO: Staff writer Alex Marshall contributed to this story.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff map
Campostella Square
For copy of map, see microfilm
KEYWORDS: CAMPOSTELLA SQUARE
CHESAPEAKE REDEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING AUTHORITY
by CNB