Refurbished units, revitalized community at Wilkes Villa as renovations progress

ELYRIA — As the Wilkes Villa public housing development undergoes the first true renovations in its 54-year history, residents have begun to move back into their refinished units. As they toured the most recently completed units on Friday, officials and community leaders said that they hope residents are not just returning to freshly updated spaces, but also to a rejuvenated and revitalized community. At the start of this year Raise Up, formerly the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority, broke ground on the Wilkes Villa renovation project, a $69 million public-private partnership that planned to gut and totally renovate every one of the development's 174 affordable housing units in seven phases. Nearly nine months later, construction crews have completed the first two phases, and the second group of residents are about to move into renovated units. Raise Up CEO Judith Carlin and COO Gail Sayers Proby led the tour, touting the new units that were almost completely unrecognizable from their previous form. The most important new features of renovated units are central air conditioning and a tankless water heater to offer hot water on demand. New units will also have brand new appliances, sinks and ovens as well as a built-in fire suppression system above the stovetop. While those updates are important, Sayers Proby said it is the work that residents will not actually see that will allow Wilkes Villa to offer affordable housing for decades to come. "Not only are we renovating, but we are going down and redoing all the guts in here," she said. "If there are plumbing issues, if there are electrical issues, they are addressing all of that. "The sewer lines over here, historically, have been bad and they get clogged up, we are addressing that, which is all a lot of the cost. But, a lot of that cost is to make these units sustainable for the next 30 years." While Raise Up has carried out continuous maintenance work there over the years, Wilkes Villa has never undergone large scale renovations since it opened in 1972. Raise Up Board Chairwoman Linda Davis said that she herself lived in Wilkes Villa shortly after it opened, and her old apartment on Portia Court was one of the first to be redone and opened back up to residents. Davis said that when she lived in the housing project, it had a bustling, close-knit community. With the newly renovated living spaces, new communal areas and increased focus on community building, she said she believed that spirit would return. "It is really going to be nice for people, they are going to enjoy it and I am sure that they are going to take care of it," she said. "And we will be helping them along, if they have problems or something. We will have inspections to help them maintain the community, that is the main thing. We want this to be a lasting impression for people, even the children as they grow up and see this, that they can look forward to something, you know, a better future." Sayers Proby said that returning residents have been most excited about the air conditioning, but they had also expressed their love for the new covered front porches at the front of all units. While these porches are small, there is room on them for small seating areas and Raise Up officials said they were hopeful that spending more time outside and interacting with each other would further build up the community feel of Wilkes. "They love the front porch, and it is just amazing," she said. "They have the overhang and, for example, it's raining today and they don't have to get wet when they're bringing in their groceries. The other thing that I am really excited to see is we are just now starting construction on our community area, which is going to be amazing." The community area will include a gazebo, basketball courts, a new playground and picnic tables to make the area better suited for parties and other community gatherings. The Wilkes Villa renovations are a public-private partnership carried out primarily by Raise Up and TFG Housing Resources of Columbus, meaning that it is funded in part by private investment and in part by funds from state, federal and local governments. A large portion of the project's funding was $37 million tax-exempt revenue bonds approved by the Lorain County Commissioners just over a year ago. At the time, Commissioner Marty Gallagher, who has a background in renovations and construction, expressed concerns about the cost of the proposed project. On Friday, Gallagher was on hand to tour the recently completed units, and he said that he was proud the county had helped fund the project and impressed by the work that had been done, which he called "simplistic but durable." "Public housing has a connotation that these are dumps and stuff like that, (but) they are doing the inspections on it, which is going to change that," Gallagher said. Gallagher said that he understood there would likely always be a need for public housing, but that he hoped the renewed Wilkes Villa could serve as a platform to help people get up and out of needing housing assistance. "It will give them more comfortable living," he said. "Hopefully, it will have people motivated to move beyond this. They'll be productive in their jobs, they'll have a warm comfortable place – with air conditioning, which they didn't have before. All this new stuff is going to make this better for them, so now we have to teach them how to take care of it and get out of here... I understand there is always going to be somebody to fill in, but hopefully we can start transitioning people out, and that is why I like the name Raise Up." The project was also funded in part by a federal 4 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credit . Raise Up Director of Development Travis Dunlap said that he believed the private investment the project had obtained was crucial for the agency. "It takes a lot of work to get these projects done, and not everybody is willing to do it," Dunlap said. "Public housing stock is aging, and it needs these deals to get done so that we can provide the residents the housing they deserve." Dunlap said that phase three of the project was well underway, and Raise Up projected that the renovations would be fully complete by November 2027. Residents have been moved out while their buildings are renovated, but their outside housing is also provided or covered by Raise Up. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.