Dozens oppose low-rent housing

Glenwood district site proposed

A nonprofit developer's plan to buy an apartment complex and turn it into housing for low-income workers is roiling one of Raleigh's historic neighborhoods near downtown.

More than 75 residents of the Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood attended a meeting last week to discuss a proposal by a group called Community Alternatives for Supportive Abodes to buy the George's Mews Apartments complex at the southeast corner of Glenwood Avenue and Washington Street.

CASA provides affordable housing for people with special needs.

Many Glenwood-Brooklyn residents argue that CASA's project would slow their neighborhood's revitalization, reduce property values and increase crime.

"It goes contrary to the whole neighborhood," said Brent Horton, 30, who lives in the Cameron Village Condominiums off St. Mary's Street. "There are other places in Raleigh where that type of development could be placed."

Erin Callahan, 33, a real estate broker who rents a nearby duplex, was more pointed.

"There are plenty of places in southeast Raleigh that could host something like this," she said.

CASA wants to turn George's Mews 26 one-bedroom units into a mix of rent-controlled apartments and housing for the disabled.

Eighteen units would be set aside for working people earning less than $31,000 a year. The other eight units would be for people receiving state disability payments.

CASA's tenant profile was largely dictated by Raleigh, which issued a public request for affordable housing proposals with specific requirements.

The $2.14 million project is to be funded by the city, Wake County and state agencies. Raleigh's City Council has agreed to contribute $926,164, but the Wake County commissioners have yet to approve a $566,500 county contribution.

A county committee is scheduled to discuss the project at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the ground-floor conference room of the Wake County Office Building, 337 S. Salisbury Street, in Raleigh.

At last week's meeting, which CASA representatives and three City Council members attended, residents asked many questions about the type of disabled people who reside in CASA developments.

Debra King, CASA's executive director, said her group offers housing to people with both physical and mental disabilities. Because CASA gets local, state and federal money, King said, its tenants are subject to great scrutiny. She also said CASA plans significant property improvements.

"Everybody goes through a screening process," King said. "We do what we say we're going to do and take care of our properties."

Mayor Charles Meeker said Raleigh aims to have diverse housing options in all areas of the Capital City. "This area of the city does not have a lot of these facilities," he said.

If the CASA project goes forward, George's Mews residents who make more than $31,000 would have to leave after their leases expire. Some tenants say they can't afford property in Glenwood-Brooklyn.

"I do have a problem with subsidizing my own eviction," said nine-year resident Monte Hobbs, 32.

The project would be CASA's first to offer housing for low-income people without special needs.

The most frequent complaint about the project is that it will hurt property values, particularly since CASA already manages a Cleveland Street quadruplex a block from George's Mews.

"My concern about the potential loss of house value is very real," said Traynor Reitmeier, 35, who owns a home off Pierce Street about a block from George's Mews. "I don't hate the people they are serving. We're not against the mission of CASA."

But King and other advocates say studies show that such projects do not harm property values.

"I don't think there's any real evidence that that's the case," said Greg Warren, executive director of Raleigh's Downtown Housing Improvement Corp.

Warren and King said they're used to neighborhoods opposing their projects -- at first.

"We often have this kind of initial response," King said, "and then people come around."