False HOPE?

City officials say federal grants can fix the problems that plague the South End's Cathedral housing development. But tenants worry that they won't be around to appreciate the results.

by Sarah McNaught

Mary Merritt remembers running through the courtyard of the Cathedral housing development as a little girl. She played jump rope on the cement slabs in front of the doorways and dressed her dolls on the tufts of grass scattered throughout the multi-building brick complex.

Today, at the age of 31, she stands in the doorway of her apartment building watching as one of her three sons and his friend play keep-away with a basketball worn nearly smooth.

"I've lived here my whole life and I've seen more than my share of fond moments and tragedy, but I still choose to stick it out," says Merritt, a heavy-set woman with a youthful face and trusting eyes. "Lately, with all the problems, I've been thinking of moving. Now I find out I may not have an option. I may have no choice but to take my three boys somewhere else."

What has Merritt worried is the Boston Housing Authority's plan to complete a much-needed overhaul of the dilapidated housing complex by applying for grant money under the federal government's HOPE VI program. The six-year-old initiative, whose name stands for Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, is designed to transform the country's most troubled public-housing projects by replacing obsolete buildings, funding social services, encouraging public-private partnerships, and creating mixed-income communities instead of concentrating poor tenants in one place. The only problem, from the point of view of those tenants, is that the improved developments may not have enough room for them.

---

On May 27, the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) was scheduled to ask the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to appropriate between $15 million and $20 million for the renovation of Cathedral. Up to five percent of that money, plus an additional 10 percent in matching funds from the state, could be used for social services such as job training, tutoring, and youth activities. Some buildings would be demolished; others would be improved by rebuilding walls, resurfacing floors, replacing broken windows, repairing crumbling stairways, painting, and landscaping the grounds. Although Cathedral would still be overseen by the BHA, it would be maintained by a private management company.

But winning the grant would mean turning some of Cathedral's low-income units into market-rate apartments, a requirement of the federal program.

"If this HUD funding deal goes through, these tenants, the majority of whom have an income below poverty level, will be faced with the harsh reality that someone else who can afford to pay for an apartment may chase them out," says Susan Gross, a social worker from the South End who has been working with the kids at Cathedral and speaking to the BHA and the Boston City Council on behalf of the tenants.

HOPE VI grants stipulate that 25 percent of the housing in the renovated development will be awarded to tenants whose income is less than $16,000 a year. Fifty percent of the housing is reserved for tenants who make between $18,000 and $35,000 a year, and the remaining 25 percent is slated for tenants making between $35,000 and $50,000 a year.

Gross says that already, "the BHA is systematically relocating residents to get the HOPE VI plan in there." Whereas 300 of Cathedral's 450 units were occupied before last October, she says, only 160 are occupied now. She knows of 100 units that have recently been renovated by the BHA, which initiated a project two years ago to fix up some of the apartments. "When I asked officials why no one has been moved into the newly done-up units, no one wanted to talk about it," she says.

The BHA has won HOPE VI grants twice before. One, a $30 million grant awarded in 1995, is being used to transform Lower Roxbury's former Orchard Park housing project (now known as Orchard Gardens) from a dense 711-unit complex into a more attractive mixed-income 330-unit development, with an additional 305 units to be developed in surrounding communities through public-private partnerships. But a larger effort at Mission Main, once known as the most dangerous and run-down public-housing project in Boston, has been plagued by delays and other problems, including protests by tenants who opposed being relocated during the construction.

That prospect upsets Cathedral tenants, too. BHA administrator Sandra Henriquez admits that some residents will be displaced during the rebuilding, though she promises that they will be given federal Section 8 vouchers to use for housing elsewhere. Tenants, however, fear that the subsidies will not be enough to cover the skyrocketing rents in Boston's private-housing market.

Tenants complain, as well, that the BHA has not done enough to explain how they will be affected if the grant comes through. On May 3, when the BHA called a meeting to discuss HOPE VI with Spanish-speaking Cathedral residents, the agency failed to send anyone who could speak Spanish, according to Mary Martinez, a long-time tenant. "They didn't even bring a translator," says Martinez. "But they are the ones who claim they are reaching out to the Latino residents. Please!" On May 10, 15 residents showed up for another planned meeting to find that no one from the BHA was present. The meeting was rescheduled for May 12.

"It's very disheartening to be repeatedly let down by the one agency that controls whether or not this development thrives or fails," says Martinez.

---

Technically, the BHA does not need the approval of tenants to apply for the grant money, but it had hoped for a letter of support from Cathedral Tenants United (CTU), the development's tenant task force. Tenants have refused to support the application, however, citing their inability to trust Ruth Barkley, the long-time head of the CTU board, who they say has driven away dedicated staff and refused to sign off on more than $90,000 in previous state and federal grants set aside for youth programs.

Indeed, the tensions surrounding HOPE VI are just the latest in a series of problems facing Cathedral tenants. Four workers who helped organize activities for children and teens have left in the past six months, gutting the development's social services. Now, a growing number of parents wonder whether their children can stay out of harm's way.

Frances Velazquez, for example, no longer thinks her eight-year-old daughter, Keomi, is safe at Cathedral, where she spends afternoons at her grandmother's apartment after getting out of classes at the Blackstone Elementary School.

Three weeks ago, Keomi, a tiny girl with a ponytail and a huge grin, was sitting on a bench in the courtyard of the complex when two youths, age nine and 11, dragged her off the seat, threw her to the ground, and began kicking her in the abdomen and head. Velazquez says that when she arrived, her daughter was covered in bruises and bloody scratches.

John Ridge of the Boston Police, the youth-services officer for the South End, agrees that the development's young people have been left vulnerable. "I took the job as youth-services officer because I saw places like Cathedral change from drug-infested, crime-riddled projects to one of the nicest places with some of the best youth facilities in the city," says Ridge. "Now, it's as if they [Cathedral] are taking a giant step backward."

Aware of the increasing distress, City Councilor Jimmy Kelly, who represents the South End, has met several times with concerned teens at Cathedral. "I have asked members of the BHA to come with me and meet the youth that I met with a few months ago," says Kelly, who hopes to have the meeting before the end of the month. "I have also asked to sit down with Ruth Barkley about what is going on and what improvements are needed."

Still, tenants like Mary Merritt worry that if HOPE VI comes through, none of those improvements will benefit them.

"We won't have to worry about a lack of youth programs for the kids because we won't even be allowed to live here," says Merritt. "It isn't fair that low-income residents have to move out in order to fix the problems at Cathedral. There has to be another answer."

Sarah McNaught can be reached at smcnaught[a]phx.com.