Little Rock officials want to revive a more than decade-old program that would help residents in certain defined neighborhoods rehabilitate their homes, but finding a funding source to support the effort has proven difficult so far.
The Targeted Neighborhood Enhancement Plan, commonly referred to as TNEP, allows homeowners living in specific areas defined by the city to request set-aside funds to fix or build houses. It's meant to encourage reinvestment in a particular area that may have a large amount of blighted or run-down property.
In 1999, the city allocated $1 million to four neighborhoods and one downtown apartment project under a Targeted Neighborhood Enhancement Plan -- the first and last Little Rock has ever created.
Some city directors have asked the City Hall staff about the possibility of restarting the program. City Manager Bruce Moore recently sent a memorandum to the Board of Directors updating it on the staff's efforts.
Four areas that would benefit from the program have been identified, but funding has not, Moore wrote.
"The primary challenge to establish a new TNEP program is funding, and at this point, staff has not identified any funding to move a TNEP program forward; however, this will be considered during the 2015 budget process," the memo said. "If funds can be identified during the budget process, staff will move this program forward."
Three of the four areas the city is considering are at least partially located in Ward 1, which includes downtown and east Little Rock and stretches south along Interstate 530. When asked whether she was supportive of her constituents being able to access housing funds through a targeted neighborhood enhancement plan, Ward 1 City Director Erma Hendrix said she would not comment on the program or its possible rebirth.
The areas being considered are the Stephens Neighborhood, located in Wards 1 and 2 around the Willie L. Hinton Neighborhood Resource Center; the Southend Neighborhood in Ward 1 surrounding Interstate Park, east of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to Interstate 30 and south of Interstate 630; east Little Rock, also in Ward 1; and southwest Little Rock, consisting of Wards 2 and 7.
Moore's memo said defined boundaries would be determined after additional analysis of the housing stock in each area is completed. He said Thursday that if the city decides to move forward, communities will be consulted before specific areas are defined.
At-large City Director Joan Adcock, who lives in southwest Little Rock and has adamantly supported the restart of the program, said she was pleased that the areas are broadly defined right now because communities need to take part in the planning.
"We should have more input from neighborhoods themselves, something like the I Love My Block grant we have going on. When neighborhoods apply, they should have a buy-in to the TNEP this time," Adcock said, referring to a commitment from the neighborhoods, not a financial buy-in.
"It should be neighborhood driven and they should be part of the selection process," she said.
Adcock said city directors lost faith in the Targeted Neighborhood Enhancement Plan program during its original run years ago when some of the funds were used to build an apartment complex.
"That's not what we felt the money was meant for; it was meant for neighborhoods," she said. The $1 million at the time was split between the Central High community, the neighborhood around Philander Smith College, downtown, disaster areas affected by a 1999 tornado, and the multifamily project.
Organizers should look at the city's past housing programs and learn from mistakes and accomplishments in each of those, Adcock said. She added that the entire community must invest in the project for it to work, including support from banks and local businesses.
Moore said the goal of the program is to leverage the available funds with other assistance that homeowners are getting from banks or elsewhere to substantially rehabilitate their homes. Under a Targeted Neighborhood Enhancement Plan, an applicant can be awarded up to 20 percent of the entire project cost. There are many elderly homeowners who need assistance with heating-and-air repairs, plumbing and other home repairs that ivolve minimum living standards, Adcock said.
Housing and Neighborhood Programs Director Andre Bernard also said the elderly are one of the groups that the program was created to help.
"As much of the housing stock in Little Rock's older neighborhoods continues to age, there will be a greater need for many of the senior citizens, disabled and low-income residents to seek assistance with repairs that they may not otherwise be able to afford," Bernard said. "The city realizes that with the limited amount of federal funds available, other sources will continue to be explored and TNEP can be one of those alternatives."
Investment in housing not only improves living conditions for participating homeowners, it also can have a positive effect on public safety, Ward 2 City Director Ken Richardson said.
Richardson has spent most of his career working with gang prevention and intervention groups. He's noticed that gang involvement and crime over the years have been strongest in areas where the community is weakest, he said.
"It's critically important to address the blight in our city, particularly if you look at crime data where crime is concentrated in those areas where you have poverty, blighted homes, boarded homes and vacant lots," Richardson said. "Addressing housing is one way we really add another dimension to our public safety strategy."
He suggested that the city review census data in concert with community input to define which neighborhoods to target if another Targeted Neighborhood Enhancement Plan is funded. A comparison between the 2000 and 2010 census reports will show that the number of children living below the poverty line in some areas of the city has doubled in that time. In other areas like east Little Rock, the percentage of poverty-stricken youth has decreased, but Richardson said it's not because the issue is being addressed. Rather the policy of boarding up and demolishing homes are pushing the population elsewhere, he said.
"Some say you have done a great job, but you haven't. You've just shifted poverty when you close houses," Richardson said.
Ultimately, it will be up to the Board of Directors to set the funding priorities for 2015, Moore said.
"If TNEP is one of the things they really want to focus on as far as overall redevelopment efforts, we will work hard to define those dollars, but we also have to keep in mind that we have some very strong goals as far as how the new sales tax revenue is spent, and objectives we said we were going to focus on," he said, referring to a list of projects promised to voters when they approved a sales tax increase in 2011. "That has to be a first priority -- making sure we are meeting those promises we made."
Metro on 06/08/2014