DATE: Friday, November 14, 1997             TAG: 9711140639

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN,STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   67 lines

AUTHORITY PLANS TO REHABILITATE TOWNHOUSES IN DEEP CREEK

Demont D. Dunlap, 18, worries about his 6-year-old brother Marqui growing up in the increasingly dilapidated neighborhood called Chesapeake Townhouses.

``What I was thinking is, what is there going to be for him to do?'' the high school senior said from the crumbling Deep Creek community that is little more than half occupied. ``We need basketball courts, and places to go. They need people here.''

But today Dunlap's family of four and their neighborhood could receive a new life.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development will sell its 152-unit Chesapeake Townhouses community to the Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority in a deal to be signed today at the neighborhood's community center on Geneva Avenue.

The selling price is $1, but the rehabilitation is expected to cost millions.

HUD will supplement the project with a $5,835,700 grant to assist with demolition, rehabilitation and relocation expenses. HUD will also provide 69 certificates for rent subsidies.

Authority Chairman Roland L. Thornton called the townhouse rehabilitation the authority's ``showcase'' redevelopment project.

The housing authority now owns and operates 467 units of public housing and 152 units of conventional housing.

Federal officials designed Chesapeake Townhouses - 21 townhouse buildings holding 152 two-, three- and four-bedroom units - as a garden-style apartment complex for low- and moderate-income residents. Now the windows and doors on half of the units have been barricaded with plywood.

``We have about 66 residents here now,'' said assistant manager Shirleen Jackson. ``They have problems with the pipes and the roofs. . . but they're really worried about whether they'll be able to stay.''

Housing authority officials said they will give current residents priority in renting the townhouses and move them to other units during construction.

Richard Bartlett, the housing authority's director of design and construction, said plans for the rehabilitation are incomplete, but he would like to see the 1970s-era multicolored siding gone.

``Probably some neutral tones, and clean up the brick,'' Bartlett said Thursday. ``Maybe some sort of patio in the back, to give people a sense of privacy.'' He added that the project could be finished in two years.

John M. Taylor, chief of the Assets and Multifamily Housing Division of HUD's state office in Richmond, said the project should preserve affordable housing options while offering new opportunities for additional residents.

In the 1970s, HUD sponsored an ambitious project in the city to foster home ownership among low-income residents by building the Chesapeake Townhouses. But the owners' cooperative, independent of the housing authority, defaulted on its mortgage about seven years ago, and HUD stepped in.

Authority officials plan to demolish about seven buildings, containing 52 units, and renovate the remaining 100 units. The authority will also rehabilitate a community center to provide computer-training classes and adult education and job skill courses.

Dunlap believes that private security officers who patrol Chesapeake Townhouses have helped reduce crime and should stay after the renovation. Building a functional basketball court would be first on his list, he said.

``I can't have my brother locked up in the house 'cause he can't go outside and play,'' Dunlap said. ``Yeah, fixing this place up would be great. And I think my family would stay.'' ILLUSTRATION: The project is a ``showcase'' for the authority, says

chairman Roland L. Thornton

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