THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 11, 1996 TAG: 9603110037
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 174 lines
A group that once was hailed as a key to improving the city's future now is under scrutiny by the City Council for some sloppy renovation work.
As a result, the Portsmouth Community Development Group, a non-profit organization formed to rehabilitate some of the city's most blighted neighborhoods, could be blocked from working in middle-income sections of the city.
The council tonight will consider whether the development group should be given a permit to construct duplexes along Washington and Columbia streets. The site is adjacent to the new Columbia Commons development on one of the well-traveled corridors into the city.
During a meeting last month, the council questioned whether it wanted the group to begin new development before cleaning up problems in the Prentiss Place section of the city.
The founders of the community development group wanted to help people who otherwise might never have owned a home. They did so by providing renovated housing at low prices, with low-interest mortgages, down payment help, and budgeting and credit assistance.
But the group had other missions as well, and an important one was to serve as an incubator for fledgling minority businesses in poor communities.
The two missions collided in Prentiss Place, where people new to the contracting business sometimes did shoddy renovation work - and frustrated first-time homebuyers paid the price. The new companies were picked to perform renovations on the houses that then were sold by the development group.
The city says it warned the development group that combining the two missions was a mistake because the contractors had little or no experience and the crumbling condition of the houses demanded highly skilled renovators. In some cases, people who had once peddled drugs on the streets of Prentiss Place were reformed and then recruited as carpenters, painters and other workers.
Recent inspections by the city found that about half of the 25 homes that the group renovated in Prentiss Place had problems that required work.
City inspectors have demanded repairs to eight homes, and the group has completed work on four.
Marilee Hawkins, who heads the city's inspection department, said at least four more homes must be inspected and any problems corrected.
Many of the problems are cosmetic, such as torn linoleum and bunched carpet. Previously, city inspectors had checked off on electrical, plumbing and structural work before certificates were issued and the houses were occupied.
Maury Cooke, the executive director of PCDG, says he wants to make things right. He has publicly offered to buy back any house his group renovated and sold.
Vice Mayor Johnny M. Clemons has been working about six months with residents of Prentiss Place who are bitter, disappointed and frustrated with PCDG's redevelopment efforts in their neighborhood.
The organization went into Prentiss Place when it was marred by boarded-up, abandoned homes and controlled by drug dealers.
The neighborhood today is much improved. It's a place filled with families and life. Children play in their yards; elderly couples relax on porches when the weather is warm. When drug dealers go by or large groups congregate in their neighborhood to hang out and drink beer, residents immediately call the police.
But inside the homes rehabilitated by the development group, residents say all is not cozy.
Workmanship on the home improvements was poor. Floors are not level. Carpet was improperly installed. New linoleum already has begun tearing.
Some residents fear worse problems with their foundations. Others complain that their requests during the renovations were ignored.
To make things worse, many of the folks who bought homes waited months - some more than a year - after moving in before all the construction was completed.
So neighborhood leaders turned to the council for help. The city had oversight responsibility on some of the renovations because it administered federal grants used to fund the work.
Clemons called a meeting last fall of the city inspections office, the city attorney, officers with the Portsmouth Community Development Group and the residents to look for solutions.
It was the first meeting that the community development group had held with residents in eight months. And it was emotional. Some residents shouted. One woman cried.
Willie and Hannah Reid have since had some success with improvements to their home. Once PCDG's contractors returned, they went to work on renovations the Reids had been complaining about for months.
``I'm learning to have patience,'' Hannah Reid said. ``I guess you can't get things done overnight. I try not to do a whole lot of complaining. I ain't got nothing bad to say, because if it hadn't been for Mr. Cooke I wouldn't have been able to buy this house.''
Reid, 69, credits the group with helping her enroll in financial management classes that taught her how to pay off old debts.
``I was one of the first ones that went all the way through it,'' Reid says proudly.
Some of Cooke's closest friends say he was was well-intentioned if a bit naive when he began the development group's work.
He wanted to fix the problems of the entire community all at once - nearly an impossible task given his small organization and the huge problems in the neighborhood.
Cooke's intention was to fix up homes, teach homeless people and drug dealers a trade, help poor workers start their own business, obliterate drugs and help low-income residents become first-time homebuyers.
Cooke stands by the ``holistic'' approach he has taken to reviving the neighborhood, and he insists that without community involvement, it is not enough to just fix up houses. But he concedes that more effort should have been placed on monitoring the construction and communicating with the neighborhood.
``They've stretched their resources, and they need to beef that up,'' said the Rev. John Vaughan, director of a Boston consulting agency that trains community development corporations and helps improve them. Vaughan now is assisting Cooke's group.
Vaughan said the group has accomplished a lot in a short time. And he said the organization also realizes improvement is needed.
``They need to more actively monitor the work that goes on,'' Vaughan said. ``They have to hold the contractors to a high standard - it's tough love. It teaches them to be good. I think it's commendable that they have started with contractors just cutting their teeth, but they have to better beef up their own support.''
Vaughan also suggested that the group work more closely with the community. ``They don't want to get into the position that they are doing this to the community, but that they are doing this with the community,'' he said.
Vaughan said that, overall, the group is doing well and that it should be encouraged to continue its mission in Portsmouth. He said PCDG is viewed as a success across Virginia.
Accolades from Boston or Richmond aside, the council doesn't seem willing to gamble that the PCDG's latest proposal for development near Columbia Commons blends with their goals.
The council is grappling with creating a new image for the city - one free of blight, where a visitor's first impression of the city is of history, lovely homes and beautiful streetscapes. Portsmouth leaders realize they still have a long way to go to reach that goal.
While the residents of Columbia Commons said they liked the designs for the four duplexes that PCDG wants to build nearby, they want assurances that the homes will be priced for middle-income residents.
Brian Hicks, a developer with PCDG, said his organization is willing to put up performance bonds to guarantee the quality of construction on the duplexes. He said the group has agreed to construct the duplexes one at a time so the city can complete inspections before another house is built.
The PCDG also has another battle brewing in the Shea Terrace neighborhood, where the group owns a small lot on Sandpiper Road. Residents are fighting plans for a single-family home there.
At a recent council meeting, Shea Terrace residents complained that the lot is too small for the proposed home. They said they feared construction would be substandard and that their neighborhood would be labeled low-income.
Hicks said the house would be compatible with others in Shea Terrace.
Tonight's council decision could set the tone for future plans involving PCDG. The council has several options: It can refuse to give the permits for the project adjacent to Columbia Commons; it can delay permitting the new project until problems in Prentiss Park are resolved; or it can take the guarantees that PCDG has offered and allow the group to continue with the new development.
Residents of Prentiss Park have asked the council to force PCDG to deal with their problems before moving on to any new projects.
``We did well with the big picture,'' said Hicks. ``But we didn't realize we had to put as much focus on the finer details, those things that the homebuyers really cared about.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Donald Chisholm is one of those helping the Portsmouth Community
Development Group.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT GROUP by CNB