Daytona Beach HOPE VI

HOPE VI project takes shape


DAYTONA BEACH -- Take a close look the next time you drive along International Speedway Boulevard.

Major changes are in the works.

Where once stood a small, deteriorating group of public housing units, construction crews are putting the finishing touches and landscaping on the Villages at Halifax, a new community of apartments and townhomes.

"We've gotten comments even from tourists," said Joyours "Pete" Gamble, chief executive officer of the Housing Authority. "That's what we want. Since that's the main artery into the city, that's something for the city to toot its horn about."

Similar changes are under way on South Street, where a modern town-home community called Lakeside Village will replace a more than 50-year-old public housing project next to a major city park.

Lastly, work is beginning at Pine Haven, a new townhouse community with a swimming pool between George Engram and Mary McLeod Bethune boulevards. The aging barracks-style buildings of the city's oldest public housing project have been cleared to make way for the new project.

In addition to the townhouses, lots are set aside at each site for single-family homes. Construction will depend on sales of lots and model homes.

The transformation culminates eight years of effort by the Daytona Beach Housing Authority to demolish and rebuild public housing in the core of the city under a federal program called HOPE VI -- Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere.

For Housing Authority officials, seeing the new buildings rise is especially sweet. They endured criticism for spending nearly $400,000 over four years starting in 1999 before finally winning $24.6 million in federal grants to get the work going.

"As I look at what's on the ground, I feel very pleased," Gamble said.

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