CITIES GET PUBLIC HOUSING BOOST

Federal program coming to Newport News, Norfolk aims to connect residents with services, promote self-sufficiency

NORFOLK — A federal program aimed at helping public housing residents become self-sufficient will boost efforts linking low-income families to much-needed services in

Norfolk and Newport News, officials announced Monday.

Called “EnVision Centers,” the new designation paves the way for additional resources and gives both cities a leg up on getting federal money to fund programs.

This doesn’t mean new facilities.

Existing centers — the Calvert Square Family Investment Center in Norfolk and the Lift and Connect Resource Center in Newport News — already work to connect those in poor communities with agencies, nonprofits and programs that can provide them with financial resources, job training, transportation assistance and a host of other services.

But Joe DeFelice, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Mid-Atlantic regional administrator, announced Monday in Norfolk that both would be designated federal EnVision Centers. The goal is to raise their profile and better connect them with regional and federal agencies and programs to help the areas’ residents.

“Housing assistance should be more than putting a roof over someone’s head,” DeFelice told a small group of officials from both cities and their respective housing authorities.

The new designation doesn’t come with any funding attached, but John Kownack, the head of Norfolk’s housing authority, said the label can give them a big leg up when they apply to HUD for grants that would fund things like workforce training.

HUD’s website lists 18 existing EnVision Centers currently operating in 16 states, though several others have been announced in recent weeks. The EnVision Center idea is an initiative from current HUD Secretary Ben Carson.

On Monday, DeFelice emphasized the program’s role in connecting people with resources that will let them branch out on their own and cut their reliance on aid. Self-sufficiency for public housing residents has been a major theme during Carson’s tenure at HUD.

“We can invest in structures all we want. Forty years later, we tear them down and build new ones,” DeFelice said. “What this comes down to is the idea of (it) taking a village.”

Norfolk has talked about a “one-stop shop” for services as part of its “People First” effort related to the redevelopment of the St. Paul’s area. A spokeswoman for the Norfolk housing authority said the EnVision Center does not replace

plans for a centralized services center through “People First” for those residents expected to move out of the St. Paul’s area over the next few years.

Meanwhile, progress on that first phase of the St. Paul’s redevelopment continues to be delayed. The first residents of Tidewater Gardens, the first neighborhood set to be demolished and rebuilt, were supposed to start moving out this summer. Months later, it’s still not clear when the first phase of moveouts in Tidewater Gardens will begin.

Officials said a handful of people have moved out already, but the housing authority is still waiting on HUD to authorize the first batch of housing choice vouchers — formerly known as Section 8 vouchers — that will enable the rest to start moving. At this point, officials said the first demolitions aren’t likely to start until late next summer at the earliest.

The first phase includes 187 units in Tidewater Gardens. Three more phases will follow until all 618 units in Tidewater Gardens are empty. Calvert Square and Young Terrace will follow in the years to come, until the whole 200-acre area is redeveloped over the next decade or so.