City's west end slated for new look, less crime
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on May 10, 2015 1:50 AM
Goldsboro's West End neighborhood could look very different five years from now.
The area, which is bordered by Elm Street, William Street and U.S. 117, was recently designated by the Goldsboro City Council as a Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area.
This means that the neighborhood, over the course of the next five years, will see substantial rehabilitation efforts to housing, the construction of mixed income rental and housing units and increased efforts by police to curb crime in the area.
Mixed income housing units allow for residents earning varied levels of income, regardless of how high or low, to live in the units.
The area encompasses most of downtown, which has seen millions of dollars invested in the area in recent years, but excludes Goldsboro's historic district.
"There was several areas that we looked at that were considered in need of revitalization," said Community Development Administrator Shycole Simpson-Carter, who is taking the lead on the project. "So we tried to prioritize and chose the West End because of the already continued effort of financial investment that's being poured into this area so far."
One of the other areas that was considered was the north end of Goldsboro, which includes the Little Washington neighborhood.
But, Mrs. Simpson-Carter said, Little Washington received NRSA funds in the 1990s.
"We haven't done a big investment of HUD dollars in this area except for some scattered projects and demolition, so that's why we said, 'OK, let's move over here and try to do a little bit of what we did in the north end back in the '90s.'"
To fund the construction of mixed income housing units in the West End neighborhood, money will be pulled from the city's Community Development Block Grant and the city will seek a Section 108 loan from HUD.
Mrs. Simpson-Carter said the city's CDBG fund totals about $300,000, and under Section 108 loan rules, the city can request to borrow up to five times that amount -- $1.5 million -- to pay for projects in the area.
"A lot of the areas here are distressed," Mrs. Simpson-Carter said. "You see a lot of slum and blight, like there are in other areas, but we're trying to do one NRSA (project) and then hopefully move on and pick up and do some other areas."
According to the most recent batch of U.S. census data, 3,195 individuals live in the NRSA boundaries of the West End neighborhood. Of the households in the area, 73.5 percent make less than 80 percent of Goldsboro's median annual income, which is $39,840.
Issues identified in the West End are old and dilapidated buildings, abandoned or boarded-up houses, under-utilized lots, lack of adequate sidewalks, inadequate recreational facilities, old and derelict commercial properties, unmanaged and excessive overgrowth in the neighborhoods and transportation infrastructure needs.
While the project seeks to rehabilitate all issues in the West End, housing revitalization and new housing construction are the primary focus.
No contractor or developer has been sought out by the city for the projects to-date because, Mrs. Simpson-Carter said, the project is still in its early planning stages.
Compared to the rest of Goldsboro and Wayne County, the West End neighborhood has experienced an accelerated rate of housing unit loss between 1980 and 2010. The area's homeowner occupancy rate is lower than 26 percent. The other 24 percent of residencies are rented.
Aside from low home ownership and income rates in the area, there are also issues plaguing the housing that is already there. Out of 2,002 total housing units, the neighborhood has 1,876 housing units that were primarily built between 1955 and 1964, according to recent housing market analysis in the area, meaning the units contain lead paint and can be toxic to inhabit.
"With the lead paint, if there's a child in the home, you worry about the lead paint poisoning," Mrs. Simpson-Carter said. "A lot of times when you're dealing with a home that has lead paint, that home was built pre-1978. So there could potentially be a lot of issues with the structure of the home, or the electrical and plumbing systems in the home. Any home that we rehab, we would definitely abate that lead."
Crime is also an issue in the area, with the West End experiencing 133 different types of crime in the past year alone. Theft, fraud, assault, burglary and vehicle break-ins or thefts are the top five.
This revitalization project could help deter crime, Mrs. Simpson-Carter said.
"It's been proven that when you revitalize an area and improve a community, you're going to eliminate certain crimes in that area," she said. "A lot of things associated with crime, like when you're dealing with slum and blight of these vacant homes, they can become sort of a nest for activity that's not appropriate in the community. Once you eliminate that and you put an affordable housing unit there, whether it be a rental property that someone's renting or some has bought, they're going to have to migrate somewhere else to do whatever it is that they're doing."
There are several positive things the neighborhood has going for it, which makes it ideal for revitalization, according to the report given to the city council. It is close to downtown, has a good housing stock that can be refurbished, has buildings of historic value, has economic opportunity due to a commercial core along Center Street, a strong potential future workforce of children in the area and a strong neighborhood spirit and committed group of residents.
The success of the revitalization will be measured by several residential, infrastructure and economic development benchmarks, including providing homebuyer assistance, constructing new housing units, working with businesses to create apprenticeships for younger residents, demolishing at least three dilapidated buildings and more.