Housing authority OKs demolition of Hawkins Village in Rankin
Families could start to relocate later this year
County housing officials plan to demolish and redevelop Hawkins Village, a World War II-era public housing complex in Rankin with more than 100 homes.
The $35 million plan to overhaul the entire site and rebuild it with fewer housing units is contingent on receiving state housing tax credits, officials said Friday. The Allegheny County Housing Authority board of directors voted Friday to request federal approval of the plan.
If the agency receives the tax credits, families could start relocating later this year, with construction beginning next year, Executive Director Frank Aggazio said Friday at the housing authority’s board meeting. There have been several meetings already with residents, he said.
Families will have assistance in relocating, Mr. Aggazio said, either to another public housing community or using a housing voucher to subsidize rent for a privately owned apartment. There are 190 housing units at the site now, though the redeveloped site would house fewer people, probably closer to 105 units.
“We’re starting as early as we can with counseling for relocation purposes for those families,” said Jack McGraw, director of development for the housing authority,
with the aim of having all families relocated by the start of the school year.
The two-phase redevelopment plan calls for using housing authority capital funds and county economic development funds in addition to tax credits and other sources.
The housing authority and Pennrose Properties will serve as the project developers, with contractor Mistick Construction and architect LGA Partners. The housing authority will still manage the redeveloped site. Families who wish to return to the redeveloped site will be chosen on the basis of seniority.
The project will be among the larger redevelopments the agency has done, Mr. Aggazio and Mr. McGraw said.
Much of the older public housing nationally and locally from this era has been torn down and redeveloped, with the aim of deconcentrating poverty.
“We can’t build the same level of density,” Mr. McGraw said. “The new rules don’t allow for that. We want to build a little bit bigger units,” with more green space, he said.
The complex, on Kenmawr Avenue in Rankin, opened in 1941, and the homes are small and outdated by today’s standards, Mr. Aggazio said.
“We want to improve the quality of life,” and provide more amenities, such as air conditioning, he said.
“It’s done its job,” Mr. McGraw said. “It was built in the ’40s for a purpose, and it’s served us very well. But ... we looked through a modernization program, we just couldn’t see that we could make the kind of improvements that were needed. And that’s when we decided collectively, with the developers, and the residents and everybody else, let’s just look to redevelop the entire property.”