A Neighborhood Rebounds:

HALL COMMUNITY TRIES TO OVERCOME DRUG PAST

Debra Watts has seen it get bad, but now it's getting better.

"This used to be a rough area," Watts said recently on a cloudy fall
day while standing on the porch of her home across from Howe Street
Park.

"There were a lot of drug dealers standing around and selling
drugs," Watts said, when she moved into her home in 1996. "There was
a lot of shooting, guys fighting. It scared a lot of people."

But death and prison have thinned the ranks of neighborhood thugs
since 1996, she said, and "it's gotten a whole lot better.

"There's a little stuff still going on, but nothing major."

One can't help but wonder the role Habitat for Humanity has played in
the resurrection of the neighborhood, which some law enforcement
officials say is still the center of the street-level drug trade in
Blount County.

But it's not as noticeable, at least in the eyes of Watts, who watches
the park and the neighborhood from her Habitat home.

She lives there with her daughter, a son and a grandson. Without
Habitat's help, she said, she'd still be living in an apartment.

"All my life, I'd always rented," she said. "It's a good
organization. A real good organization."

"They help people that would probably never be able to own their own
homes."

'A Great Location'

Blount County Habitat for Humanity Director Kay Bowers believes
strongly in the mission of her organization.

"South Hall is a great location for people to live," Bowers said
while on a tour this summer of the neighborhood.

Large shade trees -- likely survivors of some 300 such trees planted
by ALCOA in the 1920s -- line most streets; parks are readily
accessible; and the uniquely urban nature of the neighborhood is
conducive to community.

"It could be attractive to all spheres of income," Bowers said.

"Here is a community with smaller, older homes. The demographic has
changed to such that it appears you have a number of single-parent
families, a number of elderly homeowners and low-income younger
families," she said.

Efforts to establish a decent, affordable housing stock in the 13
Streets area has so far met with mixed results.

Habitat was building its seventh house in the South Hall community
this summer. Two are on the east side of Hall Road, five are on the
west side.

Of those five, the first three were built at the end of West Howe
Street, "where the majority of drugs, loitering and safety problems
exist," Bowers said.

Three of the houses were sold to households headed by single females.
Two of those homes were foreclosed on. The Watts household remains
current on its mortgage. One house has been sold to another family
with a Habitat mortgage, and the other house, next door to Watts, was
renovated last year and sold to a resident through a traditional lender.

One lesson was learned from the foreclosures, and it's an issue with
which Habitat still grapples: "If you have low-income, single-parent
mothers who are already struggling in life, you shouldn't be putting
them in areas that are going to cause even more burdens than they
already have," Bowers said.

Habitat plugs on, however.

"We believe that community can be revitalized. We believe there are
residents there who are working to take back the neighborhood."

Healthy Mix

The formation of the Foothills Community Development Corp. (FDC) will
give Habitat and the city even more leverage for positive change.

"We hope to create a healthier mix, get away from economically
segregated communities," Bowers said.

Habitat is not allowed to use government funds to build houses. A
community development corporation, on the other hand, can apply for
and use government funds to build, reconstruct or rehabilitate homes.
The corporation can also partner with other lenders who may offer
low-interest loans.

The FDC has so far received $238,000 to rehabilitate and reconstruct
four homes in the city. It has "informal" options on nine properties
in the community, the majority of which are on Howe Street.

"Because of a lack of safety and crime problems, (the FDC) will
probably not do our first project on that street," Bowers said.
"We're going to wait until we see some change. It would be hard to
sell to people the way it is."

Qualified buyers recruited by the program "have a choice in where the
house will be built."

Regardless of location, the FDC is expected to get in full swing next
year, "and if the project is successful, we will be able to apply for
more grant funds," Bowers said.

But the FDC will be more than a pass-through entity for federal
housing funds.

It is "trying to be a facilitator to bring information, tools, ideas
and folks together," she said.

That's just the beginning, Bowers acknowledges.

"Clearly, if you're going to do something like this, codes
enforcement is essential."

The South Hall Community, she said, could be a rarity in modern America:
a healthy working-class neighborhood for which the city could claim
"bragging rights."

Taking Good Care

Alcoa Director of Planning Chris Hamby was pleasantly surprised by
drives through the South Hall neighborhood this fall.

Hamby, in the company of Assistant Planner Jeremy Pearson, recorded
the number of deteriorating and dilapidated homes in the 13 Streets
area.

According to the 2000 Census, about 14 percent of the homes in the
area are vacant, compared to 9 percent citywide. Hamby didn't just
survey the vacant houses, though.

"I was quite surprised, really," she said. Of 464 primarily
inhabited units surveyed in the 13 Streets area, only 5.1 percent
qualified as deteriorating or substandard. Less than 1 percent of the
homes were classified as "dilapidated," or verging on
condemnation.

"It looked pretty doggone good, actually," she said. "There's an
enclave of people in there really taking good care of their homes."

Several houses ranked standard left some cosmetic work to be desired,
and there are still some widespread "maintenance issues," Hamby
said, but she chalked that up to a fairly high percentage of renters.
In the South Hall community, about 32 percent of homes are
renter-occupied. That's on par with the city rental rate of 32
percent, which Hamby said "is kind of up there."

It's just that fact that prevents the city from offering more home
improvement assistance to low-income inhabitants of the 13 Streets and
elsewhere.

Most federal home improvement grant programs, such as the HOME grant
program offered by the city for the first time this year, are only
offered for improvement to homes that are owner-occupied.

"A good portion of the people in need are living in rental
property," Hamby said. Even if the home has been in the family for
generations, sometimes inhabitants have never gotten a deed or clear
title, which also disqualifies them from assistance.

The city this year received HOME grants totaling $165,617 from the
Tennessee Housing Development Authority for four projects. Two are
complete demolitions and rebuilds, and two are rehabilitation
projects. The projects -- on Watt, Edison, Bell and Newcomen streets
- -- are being overseen by Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon of Knoxville.

Hamby said the city will see how this initial investment proceeds and
will likely seek more such funding in the future.

'A Big Push'

So what of the codes enforcement Bowers says is needed?

Hamby said the city has been "rigorously enforcing (codes) the last
two to three years," and now has two full-time inspectors and codes
enforcement officers.

Junked and abandoned cars, for one, have been "hit hard and heavy"
recently, she said.

And that's a positive step. Alcoa City Commissioner George Williams
said he and 13 Streets resident Jackie Hill have personally counted
250 junk cars in the area of 13 Streets.

While the city does not keep records of code violations by
neighborhood, Alcoa Codes Enforcement Officer Gary Holloway said the
city has removed 300 abandoned cars over the past three years, "and
there is a big push for that" in the 13 Streets area.

The city will tow abandoned cars from private property at no charge,
he said.

There has also been an increase in the number of citations for
overgrown lots, he said.

Hamby said state law often prevents the timely remedy of codes
violations residents of the area would like to see.

She said the city is working with its attorney to streamline the
process of codes enforcement, which, she admits, "can be a laborious
project." The city has also used its condemnation powers to remove
blighted property from the neighborhood.

Last fiscal year, six houses in the Hall and Oldfield communities were
condemned. One was rehabilitated, and five were torn down following
condemnation, said city codes Enforcement Officer Roger Post. No
condemnation proceedings have yet begun this fiscal year, though the
city has its eye on "a couple problem houses," he said. "People
have made us some good promises."

Nothing Beyond Repair

The 13 Streets also has a little help from the private sector, in the
form of people like Juluse Jarrett.

Jarrett buys substandard housing, repairs it with a construction loan,
and offers the improved properties for resale, at little or no profit,
to those in need of affordable housing.

"Some houses are better than others," he said this fall while
working on a home on Edison Street. "But if the structure's sound,
you can work on it."

Jarrett also offers renovation services to the economically
disadvantaged.

In this particular case on Edison Street, he was renovating a home
that had been damaged by fire. The owner of the home couldn't afford
the repairs in the immediate absence of insurance money, so he fronted
the labor and materials.

It's an ambitious project -- the entire interior was gutted, and the
structure -- originally built for ALCOA employees -- needed complete
rewiring and new plumbing. Some of the materials were donated, or
purchased by others, such as the windows provided by the Rev. Stone
Carr, a former Alcoa city commissioner and community activist.

Jarrett, a 60-year-old ALCOA retiree and Vietnam veteran, has
rehabilitated and made available for purchase -- on a first-come,
first-served basis -- eight houses in Alcoa, two in Maryville and one
in Knoxville.

"I like taking something and making it look good," he said, adding
that others are taking the same initiative. "It's looking better,"
he said of the 13 Streets.

"A lot of times people just can't afford to maintain their
houses.

"I haven't seen too many beyond repair, but what some people call
beyond repair, I don't," he said.

So what is Jarrett's motivation?

"I went through Vietnam," he said, and had brain surgery in 1986. He
had a heart attack in 1996.

Still he goes strong.

"I feel like I've had three leases on life," he said.

"I just want to give something back."