HOPE VI revives a Tacoma neighborhood

Salishan, one of the toughest neighborhoods in Tacoma, Washington, is being turned around by a 188-acre HOPE VI project, The New York Times reported June 24. The 90 market-rate houses in the project’s first phase, some of them priced between $202,000 and $228,000, sold out upon release, according to their builder, Quadrant Homes. That represents a stunning recovery from the days of the Salishan public housing project — 855 dwellings constructed in the 1940s and demolished beginning in 2004 after the area had become notorious for crime. The new Salishan community, planned by Torti Gallas & Partners and developed by Lorig Associates and the Tacoma Housing Authority, won a 2007 CNU Charter Award and an American Institute of Architects housing award. The first phase includes 40 below-market-rate houses which are sold to buyers with incomes under 60 percent of the city’s median. About half of those houses, priced from $130,000 to $219,000, have been sold to families that lived in the public housing project. The first phase also includes about 300 subsidized rental townhouses and apartments. When completed in 2009, the development will have approximately 250 market-rate houses, 100 houses below market rate, and 815 subsidized rentals. The old project had 3,000 tenants. So far, 30 percent have decided to return, The Times reported. Many of the for-sale houses and rental units face one another, to foster connections among residents of differing economic levels. The designers have tried to include spaces and housing floor plans that can accommodate elderly or extended family members, allowing residents to stay as their needs change over the years. Across the country, 65 HOPE VI developments have been completed since the program began in 1993, The Times said. Susan Popkin at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, described the new developments as “remarkably successful.”