The future of public housing?
More than just the appearance and living conditions of public housing complexes are being renovated in Columbus. So are the entire philosophy and business models of public housing itself.
Some of the external improvements have been obvious, and impressive — the conversion of the old Peabody Apartments on Talbotton Road into Ashley Station comes immediately to mind. And, as reported in a story by staff writer Alva James-Johnson, the improvements going on at other housing complexes now are more than façade-deep. Other improvements, such as painting, plumbing and landscaping, are part of a large-scale overhaul.
Columbus Housing Authority is well into a $37 million upgrade project at four of its properties — Farley Homes, E.J. Knights Apartments, Nicholson Terrace and Wilson Homes. A federal program called Rental Assistance Demonstration allows local public housing departments greater flexibility under HUD guidelines to use alternative financing, such as tax credits, to convert to a residential voucher system.
More than half of CHA’s 1,320 units have already made that conversion, CEO Len Williams said, including the mixed-income developments at Ashley Station and Arbor Pointe (formerly Baker Village).
“We will be technically out of the public housing business in two or three years,” Williams told James-Johnson — an extraordinary prediction, especially in such a short time frame. “Everything we have will be project-based vouchers similar to other affordable housing in the community.”
Housing Authority plan calls for the eventual conversion of Chase Homes on 20th Street to a voucher-type apartment complex, as well as the redeveloped Booker T. Washington Apartments nearing completion at the south end of Veterans Parkway.
“What we find is the better the property looks, the better it is for the residents and the better the property is taken care of, which benefits the entire community,” Williams said. “It’s a pretty dramatic makeover in just about every case.”
It’s a pretty dramatic change of approach. It’s in everybody’s interest that it should succeed.
Awkward test case
Important First Amendment issues don’t always involve major players like the New York Times and the president of the United States. More often, they involve the distasteful likes of Larry Flynt and Jerry Falwell, or, in this case, a sex offender with Internet access.
A North Carolina law bans registered sex offenders from commercial social media sites that could be frequented by minors, which is to say most of them.
The offender (in both gross and lesser senses of the word) is a former college student who pleaded guilty to statutory rape of a 13-year-old. He was still, and always will be, registered as a convicted sex offender when he posted on Facebook (under an alias) that he was happy to have a traffic ticket dismissed. A police officer made the connection.
In this case, the Supreme Court will weigh whether such a law is unconstitutional overreach. If free speech issues were easy, we wouldn’t need a First Amendment. Or a Supreme Court.
This story was originally published February 27, 2017 at 4:27 PM with the headline "The future of public housing?."