Portion of South Hill Terrace to be razed
The Fayette County Housing Authority Thursday unanimously amended the 2006-07 fiscal year plan to include demolition of 55 of the 100 public housing units at South Hill Terrace in Brownsville, downsizing that complex by more than half. Although she voted in favor of the change, Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink questioned why the demolition proposal wasn’t included in the original plan adopted just months ago. She said that the authority has known for years about the impending switch to project-based management as well as the vacancy rate problems at the site.
Board members Beverly Beal, James V. Bitonti and William “Trip” Radcliffe also voted in favor of the action. Nancy Sutton was absent for the meeting.
Department head Andre Walters said keeping the units in operation would just be a burden to the authority. Executive Director Thomas Harkless said the reason the demolition was not included in the plan adopted in April is that as the conversion to site-based management in October is nearing, he has been running numbers calculating vacancies and the potential decrease of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding.
Harkless said that because there is no public housing waiting list in Brownsville and there are way too many housing units in inventory, now is the time to “fish or cut bait.”
Harkless also said that the demolition wasn’t included before because the staff is always trying to market units.
As an example, he said that last month eight units were newly rented at Fort Mason Village in Masontown, which was previously a problem area for vacancies.
Zimmerlink said they have known for years about the vacancies and the site-based management shift and they knew the units needed to be demolished.
Last month, the authority heard from Walters about the possibility of demolishing 52 units at South Hill Terrace. Walters said what was at stake was $180,000 this year in potential loss of subsidy if the authority fails to meet the “stop loss criteria” for the non-performing property.
Since Harkless took over the reigns of the authority in the fall of 1999, the number of units has dropped from 1,700 in 21 sites to 1,322 units at 19 sites. To date, 378 units have been demolished or converted.
Counting the 55 units slated to be demolished at South Hill Terrace, the FCHA has downsized by 433 units, a reduction of 25.4 percent of its total housing stock that existed in 1999.