Rockford Housing Authority director pitches plan to remake city’s public housing

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

By Lindsey Holden
Rockford Register Star

ROCKFORD — Rockford Housing Authority officials began a testy dialogue Monday night with aldermen about how to best redevelop Rockford’s public housing complexes.

Executive Director Ron Clewer presented a five-year plan during a planning session at Rockford Metropolitan Agency for Planning. The proposal comes about two months after the City Council rejected the agency’s $28 million Choice Neighborhoods grant proposal. The grant would have been used to redevelop Fairgrounds Valley and the surrounding Ellis Heights neighborhood. Council members were willing to discuss Clewer’s plan Monday but had differing ideas about what they want for Rockford’s public housing.

Clewer admitted that the agency’s past strategies, which involved concentrating poor minorities to mostly segregated areas of Rockford, hadn’t worked and had done more harm than good. He proposed tearing down or remodeling old housing projects to make way for smaller, aesthetically attractive, mixed-income developments near services that residents need.

“We’re talking about people who live in our units,” he said. “They need jobs, they need education, they need to live.”

Five sites would be redeveloped: Fairgrounds Valley, Orton Keyes, scattered sites on the west and east sides, and Brewington Oaks. Construction costs are estimated at $147 million.

The agency wants to revamp all the complexes in phases. In the case of the 210 apartments at Fairgrounds Valley, RHA would first build up to 70 units in a different part of the city; South New Towne Drive in east Rockford has been discussed as a potential site. The Housing Authority would then tear down Fairgrounds Valley, put 59 new housing units on site and establish additional single-family homes and housing units in existing or new buildings around the city.

To pay for all of its plans, Clewer said RHA is exploring a relatively new federal program that allows housing authorities to convert ownership of public housing projects to private-public partnerships. Rental Assistance Demonstration allows private and nonprofit companies to help finance the redevelopment of distressed housing in exchange for partial ownership and long-term management contracts. The housing authority retains 50 percent ownership of housing developments that undergo such conversions. Residents still pay one-third of their income to live in the housing development.

Under such an arrangement, Clewer said, RHA could leverage private equity to redevelop its properties without relying on shrinking amounts of federal dollars.
A few aldermen expressed skepticism of Clewer’s plans. Ald. Venita Hervey, D-5, wanted specific answers about where RHA would put new public housing units. She’s tired of the agency concentrating public housing in poor, minority neighborhoods.

“I’ve watched one failed promise over public housing after another,” she said. “You’re here to convince other people to get you what you want. You’re not here to listen to” opponents.

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