Urban housing success story faces budget ax

A national article with a local impact... From today's SF Gate, "Hasinah Rahim ... knows the stigma of life in the projects, having lived in the Hayes Valley public housing development, near San Francisco's Civic Center, since 1980. She recalled gang activity so blatant that thugs would methodically follow the maintenance workers when they replaced outdoor lights and smash the bulbs one by one so they could sell drugs unimpeded."

"But the Hayes Valley project has, like Aliso Village, been torn down and rebuilt, and Rahim, now the general manager, describes the transformation through the eyes of her daughter. The young woman, now a college student in Atlanta, recently said she wants to return and get her own apartment in Hayes Valley."

"Are you kidding?" Rahim said. "She would have never said that before. She would have been gone for good."

"[There is] an aptly named program to thank for the transformation -- Hope VI, an innovative federal housing program that has financed, over the past 13 years, the demolition and reconstruction of some of the most distressed public housing projects in the country. Its supporters, including housing officials, policy analysts and Democratic and Republican lawmakers, describe it as the most powerful engine of inner-city renewal ever undertaken."

"But now, with the Bush administration looking to cut many domestic programs, the future of Hope VI appears dire. In his $2.77 trillion dollar federal budget, President Bush seeks not only to eliminate Hope VI funding altogether but to rescind the $100 million given to the program last year."

"The White House argues that local housing authorities can do the job as well as, if not better than, Hope VI by tapping other kinds of public and private financing."

"Olivia Robinson, a longtime Hayes Valley resident, said that, as part of the redevelopment, the city had refurbished a park across the street that was once littered with used needles. The complex also has a computer training center, a child care center and after-school programs."

"Yet, for three years running, the Bush administration has sought to eliminate Hope VI funding. Each year Congress has fought off the White House and has provided money, but at a severely reduced level. From $575 million in 2001, the funding declined to $100 million last year."

"There's no way to replace that federal money. It's just absurd," said Richard Baron, chief executive of McCormack Baron and Salazar, a St. Louis firm that has been involved in 33 Hope VI projects around the country.

"Gregg Fortner, executive director of the San Francisco Housing Authority, said that, without additional Hope VI funding, he will not be able to demolish and replace an additional 275 public housing units in the city that are falling apart."

"Public housing has evolved to what it is over the past 60 years, and it's going to take some time to fix it," he said. "But it has to be done, and the federal government has to be the catalyst."

Thanks, Brett, for the tip on this story!