THE INTERSECTION OF SHERWOOD ROAD AND HIWASSEE DRIVE IN KINGSPORT, WHERE HOPE VI IS BUILDING NEW HOUSING
"All of the new homes being built at Sherwood-Hiwassee are for sale," says HOPE VI Director Doris Ladd. "We are still working on the price range for those, but they will probably be in the range of $120,000 to $130,000. They will all be mostly brick, and all are three bedroom and two bath houses."
Meanwhile in the Riverview Neighborhood, there will be four homes that will be for sale. "We are working with the Youth Build Program," says Mrs. Ladd.
Youth Build has a grant that allows the agency to take about 24 young people who do not have high school educations, and not only furthers their education, but allows them gainful employment. "At the Riverview site, the Youth Build participants will spend half their time in a classroom setting, during which they will work on getting their G.E.D.'s," says Mrs. Ladd, "then the other half of their time will be spent at the Riverview site building homes. The grant provides for the funding to pay their labor, and also the educational process. They're also working with the Eastern 8 non-profit agency, which helps build affordable homes.
A YOUTH BUILD HOME
"Two Youth Build homes will be built, with the first starting in February of '08," says Mrs. Ladd, "then two others in '09. Those four homes will all be for sale, and any Riverview Apartments resident moving back will be given first chance to purchase those."
Meanwhile, as previously mentioned, all of the HOPE VI homes being built on the Riverview Apartments site, will be public housing available for rent to former apartment residents and others who qualify. There will be a total of 38 rental units built, plus the separate 4 Youth Build for-sale homes. "There will be eight corner rental duplexes," says Mrs. Ladd, "at the corners of Louis and Douglass, and Louis and Lincoln, and also Carver and Douglass and Carver and Lincoln, for a total of 16 individual housing units. These are still under design, but will be geared towards seniors and the disabled."
ARTIST RENDERING OF THE NEW RIVERVIEW HOMES
"Then, there will be 16 other single-dwelling housing units interspersed on the site," she says. "Those will mostly be three-bedroom, two-bath, and we are still trying to decide whether to add a fourth bedroom to some of those."
"And then, 6 more single-dwelling, three-bedroom (maybe four), two-bath units will also be scattered through the community," she says.
"We have no restrictions on the number of stories, but some of the housing designs for the senior and disabled call for a limited or no second floor," says Mrs. Ladd.
As previously mentioned, tear-down for the Historic Riverview Apartments is scheduled by this coming February, with bids for construction of the new HOPE VI housing going out during the first quarter of 2009. Actual construction could begin by April or May of 2009.