DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997                TAG: 9703040001
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   50 lines

IDA BARBOUR REVITALIZATION PLAN DREAMS COME TRUE CITY GETS UP TO $50 MILLION IN FEDERAL FUNDS TO REPLACE BLIGHTED PUBLIC-HOUSING PARK WITH NEW HOMES.

In the fondest dreams of Portsmouth city officials, somebody taps them on the shoulder and says, ``Here's up to $50 million. Tear down the 40-year-old Ida Barbour public-housing park and build houses the residents can buy and pay city taxes on.''

That beaut of a dream has come true.

Partly as a reward for Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority's achieving perfect scores on its handling of public housing for three years straight, the federal government is entirely funding the Ida Barbour plan, a first-of-its-kind pilot project.

The nation will watch the plan's progress to determine if similar programs should be implemented elsewhere.

Everything about the pilot program seems worth copying elsewhere.

For one thing, no Ida Barbour residents get thrown out on the street. Residents who don't want to participate in the project will receive federal vouchers to pay all or part of rent elsewhere.

The key word is ``participate.'' Residents of the new housing must demonstrate commitment to community development, education and work. They must, in fact, sign a ``contract of participation.''

To help participants, the housing authority will hire seven or eight case workers trained in personal finance, home upkeep and other skills homeowners need. ``Most federal programs are fragmented,'' said PRHA Director Danny Cruce. ``This one is not. We'll have special workers who will deal with the whole person, the whole family.''

Ida Barbour occupies about 41 acres near downtown. There are 663 units, of which 85 are vacant and boarded up. Although crime declined significantly last year, the name Ida Barbour is almost synonymous with crime in Portsmouth.

Plans call for the new housing to occupy 63 acres in all. Cruce said there will be about 700 units, the majority of them owned by their occupants, when the project is completed in three to six years.

Public-housing residents may move into the new houses under a lease-to-own agreement.

If the federal government has learned anything about public housing in recent decades, it is that warehousing low-income residents doesn't work. The Ida Barbour project requires a joint effort between the city and residents. It gives residents a bigger stake in the upkeep of their neighborhood.

``It's a win-win program,'' Cruce said. ``The families are going to improve their living conditions. The city is going to remove blighted structures and put the property on the tax rolls.''

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu