RADICAL CHANGES:

PROVIDENCE PLACE IS NOT HAPPY HILL, NEW RESIDENT SAYS NEW VIEW: RENOVATIONS TRANSFORM NEIGHBORHOOD

By Mary Giunca
JOURNAL REPORTER

This page is hosted by JournalNow.com, web site of the Winston-Salem Journal. This story was originally published Saturday, July 15, 2006.
Mattie Boston showed off her cozy apartment at the newly opened Providence Place and talked about the odd changes that life can bring.

"I never would have thought I'd be over here where Happy Hill Gardens used to be," she said, "even if the rent was free. Not to put people down, but that's not for me."

For Boston, the move to the first phase of an ambitious transformation of the former Happy Hill Gardens housing community is an exciting step for her and her granddaughter, Aleshia Smith.

As former residents of Happy Hill gathered yesterday and again today for the 13th annual Happy Hill Reunion, many are seeing a radically different neighborhood from where they spent years of their lives.

Providence Place, where Boston lives, is the first part of a $32.4 million project begun in 2004 with a $18 million federal HOPE VI grant.

This is the city's second HOPE VI project. The first was for the old Kimberly Park Terrace housing community.

The transformation of Kimberly Park into a mix of units for senior citizens, new apartments, single-family homes and town houses began in 1997 with a $28 million HOPE VI grant.

Providence Place has 58 one- to three-bedroom apartments and is fully occupied, said Fulton Meachem, the interim director of the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem. Providence Place offers affordable housing through the HAWS Section 8 program.

Other parts of the Happy Hill transformation are on the way.

Alder's Point, which will have 100 apartments for senior citizens, should be completed next month, Meachum said. In addition, construction will start on Willows Peak in September and should be finished in about a year. The 116 apartments will range from one to four bedrooms and feature a mix of affordable and market-rate units.

HAWS is also in negotiations with a developer to build 69 single-family homes and 89 town houses, Meachem said.

So far, eight of Happy Hill's former residents have returned to Providence Place, he said.

When residents were moved out of Happy Hill Gardens, they were given Section 8 vouchers for housing, and are now scattered all over the county. Some people are enjoying their new homes and may not want to come back.

Everyone is eligible to return, Meachem said, but people who have gone through the authority's family self-sufficiency program are given preference.

The family self-sufficiency program helps people with job training, education, transportation, child care and budgeting their money, he said.

Providence Place is trying to attract working families, rather than families with no income, as had been the case sometimes in the former public-housing community.

Maurice Pitts Johnson, the secretary of the Happy Hill Neighborhood Association and a descendent of one of the men who came to the neighborhood in the late 1800s, said she is excited about the changes that are taking place.

She is concerned, she said, that the new people moving in will have no idea of the area's history. Happy Hill is the city's oldest black neighborhood. Many of the first settlers were former slaves who came across Salem Creek after the Civil War. They built a thriving community, some of which remains.

"I just think it would give them a new appreciation," Johnson said, of Providence Place's new residents. "They will take pride in where they live. They will tell their children about it. It's history, and it's significant enough that it needs to be passed on."

She said she would like to see the housing authority work with Happy Hill residents to develop a brochure or video that tells people about the area.

Boston said that her move is a homecoming of sorts, because some of her mother's family is buried in the graveyard in Happy Hill.

She said that she likes the convenience and privacy of Providence Place. If management can stay on top of things, it will be a nice place to live, she said.

Her friends can't believe she's living in what they still insist on calling "Happy Hill Gardens."

"It's not Happy Hill Gardens anymore. It's Providence Place," she said. "That's how I wish everyone would look at it now. That's past tense."