Hope VI project helps with home dreams

"I want to paint my walls green and blue," she said. "I want to knock down walls and not have anybody tell me I can't."That's not all. She also dreams of having a fenced-in yard and a swing set for her three children.The Hope VI redevelopment project on Decatur's near-north side may have displaced Wilder from Longview Place, but it's also working to help make her dream of homeownership come true.Wilder, 30, and her children are among more than 200 families receiving help under the project's $2.3 million community and supportive services program. That assistance includes relocation benefits, energy assistance, child care, life skills education, home buyer counseling and job training.In Wilder's case, that help has also involved a part-time job. She started work Dec. 30 as an assistant who will help deliver home buyer counseling to other former Longview residents."About 140 of our families want to become homeowners," said Rachel Joy, manager of community and supportive services. "Many of them would like to move back into the redevelopment area."Finding clientsAnyone leaving the Longview public housing complex in good standing since Decatur received a $34 million Hope VI grant in 1999 is eligible to receive supportive services. The trouble was, the community and supportive service program was not in place until last March.By that time, because the project calls for the complex to be demolished, only about 100 of Longview's 386 units were still occupied.That meant one of the first tasks for Joy and her two case managers was to recruit clients. The campaign included fliers, distributed by Longview's resident organization, and announcements, sponsored by Illinois Power Co. on The Magic 1050.Wilder was among the Hope VI residents who already had moved out of Longview. She left in October 2000 because her family had one of the few occupied apartments toward the rear of the complex. "People would knock on my door at 4 a.m., and one of my windows got broken out," she said. "I didn't feel safe being the only one back there."She moved into subsidized housing not owned by the Decatur Housing Authority but had to abandon it because of mold problems. She then rented a one-bedroom apartment that was much too small and much too expensive, but she believed she had no other choice."It was either move there or be homeless, and I'm not going to be homeless with three kids."Wilder immediately reapplied for public housing but had to pay the back rent she owed on the subsidized housing before she could move into her three-bedroom house north of Longview in August.She's now focused on cleaning up her credit record and doing well at her new job. She previously worked at Taco Bell in Forsyth.Cynthia Thomas, her case manager, sees good things in Wilder's future. "She has a lot more willpower than a lot of people," Thomas said. "She wants to achieve things. We're just lining up the steps for her to achieve those things."Helping partnersJim Alpi, Hope VI coordinator in Decatur, said supportive services are usually not in place before residents begin to voluntarily move out of Hope VI redevelopment areas. "In an ideal world, services would be available from Day One, but in most cases it hasn't happened that way," he said.The goal, however, is clear: to help at least one person in the family get a job and the family become self-sufficient.Joy explained that community and supportive services does that largely by partnering with other agencies. For example, Decatur-Macon County Opportunities Corp. is providing child care and assistance paying power bills. The Community Investment Corporation of Decatur is supplying home buyer counseling.Longview's resident organization and the Neighborhood Housing Development Corp. are developing a resource room, complete with computers, for Hope VI residents.Phyllis Washington, chairwoman of a supportive services committee, said interested residents also can receive training in a building trade so they can help construct the Hope VI project.Hope VI will create 650 housing units in three phases on 120 acres bounded by Grand Avenue on the north, the Illinois Central Railroad tracks on the east, Marietta Street and Central Avenue on the south and Warren Street on the west. Alpi said about 245 units would be for low-income residents, about 235 for moderate-income residents and about 170 will be market-rate units.The majority of the 650 units will be for rent. However, 123 will be homes that individuals or families can purchase. Fourteen of those will be for low-income applicants, and the rest will be market-rate.Alpi said only about 15 percent of Hope VI residents nationally eventually move back into the revitalized area."If residents want to be relocated back into the same neighborhood, they need to participate in the community and supportive services, and they will be given priority," he said.Only about 15 apartments remain occupied in Longview Place, and those residents must move out by March 1. The demolition of Longview and construction of the first phase of Hope VI are set to begin this spring.Brighter futureLaura Cooper, 51, moved into Longview with her three grandchildren in 1996. Her case manager, Bernita Johnson, helped the family relocate to public housing on South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in October.Cooper has begun taking General Educational Development classes with the goal of getting a job in day care. She previously provided child care in her Longview Place apartment.She also has taken advantage of rap sessions offered by community and supportive services for girls ages 10 to 17 by taking her granddaughter, Tanjania Culver, 12."I can come to (Bernita) with anything I need," Cooper said. "I think it's great the way they're doing what they can to help us."Johnson also wants Cooper to obtain her drivers license after she earns her high school equivalency."When I first started working with Laura, she wasn't really sure of herself," Johnson said. "She's gotten more outgoing and made education a top priority. She's really blossoming."Theresa Churchill can be reached at 421-7978.