Portsmouth's Jeffry Wilson housing complex closes its doors

PORTSMOUTH

Charlethya Coleman won't miss the sweltering summer nights, when fights broke out at Jeffry Wilson Homes and the police were called.

"It hasn't been the best living out here," Coleman said. "It's been something to call home for the time being."

Earlier this month, Coleman, her husband, and their five children were among the final residents to move from the aging public housing complex at Frederick Boulevard and Turnpike Road.

All 400 families that lived in the community will have left by New Year's Day, said Delores Adams, director of housing management for the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Closing the 54-year-old Jeffry Wilson project marks another milestone in the city's efforts to replace old public housing complexes and continue revitalizing Midtown Portsmouth.

The Colemans moved to another public housing complex in the city, Swanson Homes, as they get their finances in order to buy a house.

"We won't be there for long," Coleman said.

The city plans to use part of a $20 million federal grant to rebuild on the Jeffry Wilson site, to build single-family homes and apartments at Westbury and to build apartments for senior citizens on County Street, Adams said.

Portsmouth received its first federal Hope VI in 1997, which allowed the city to demolish the crime-ridden Ida Barbour housing project and build Westbury, a neighborhood near downtown containing single-family homes and apartments.

Then in 2005, after several attempts, Portsmouth was awarded the $20 million Hope VI grant, in part to tear down the 26-acre Jeffry Wilson complex and replace it with new apartments, single-family homes and commercial buildings.

Residents will also receive services, costing $2 million from the grant, to help them become self -sufficient. The services will include education, child care, transportation, computer and life skills, Adams said.

The city also might demolish the Lincoln Park housing project and build a more modern complex, but without the help of a Hope VI grant.

Adams said residents who relocated from Jeffry Wilson are split between people who decided to stay in public housing and those who took Section 8 - a federal program that helps people with low incomes pay rent.

"They're all over the city," Adams said.

The vast majority of the former residents stayed in Portsmouth, though some moved to surrounding cities, Adams said.

Residents were helped with moving and relocation and with deposits on new rentals, Adams said.

Eric Bynum, 34, said he moved to Jeffry Wilson about five years ago.

Bynum, who receives dialysis treatment three times a week, said he was looking forward to moving to an apartment on Edwards Street, near where he lived before moving into Jeffry Wilson.

"It's convenient and more independent," he said.

Brandon Neal, 22, said earlier this month that when he, his mother, and three sisters moved to Jeffry Wilson nearly six years ago, they had problems because they were new to the neighborhood.

Things changed as residents began to leave the community over the last two years, Neal said.

"Since everybody's moved out of here, it's been peaceful, real peaceful," he said.

A few days later, the family got flooded out of their apartment at Jeffry Wilson, Neal's mother, Dionne Hurst, said.

They have since moved in with Hurst's fiance, who lives on Portsmouth Boulevard.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 446-2627, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com