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Wilmington Housing Authority gives update on Hillcrest, federal shutdown, and Jervay

Wilmington Housing Authority purchased Robert S. Jervay Place in December of 2024, with plans to rehabilitate or replace the hurricane damaged units.
Ben Schachtman
/
WHQR
Wilmington Housing Authority purchased Robert S. Jervay Place in December of 2024, with plans to rehabilitate or replace the hurricane damaged units.

The Wilmington Housing Authority gave a presentation to the city council Tuesday, emphasizing the impacts of the federal shutdown.

The Housing Authority has a three-month reserve to manage its costs, which is typical of such agencies across the country. With the federal government shut down, CEO Tyrone Garrett said the agency is relying on those reserves.

"We're holding steadfast, believing that hopefully this will end much sooner than later, and that if it does not, though we are up until December 31 before we have to make any other harsh decisions," Garrett told city council.

The shutdown is also impacting WHA’s redevelopment projects — not by reducing funding, but because Housing and Urban Development is unstaffed.

"There probably haven’t been anybody working on any current transactions that have to happen across the country right now,” Garrett said.

The Authority also provided an update about Hillcrest, on Wilmington’s south side, which will have its master plan for redevelopment unveiled next week. Under half of the units are still occupied on the site.

WHA is planning both commercial and mixed-income residential development, and hopes to offer amenities like childcare, recreation, greenspace, and equitable access – the housing authority is also focused on rehousing existing residents.

"Many of the residents we’re moving out now are seniors," Garrett said.

The plan will roll out in four phases, starting with a senior community with 84 units and on-site management offices. That’ll allow elderly residents to move into the new complex quite quickly, with younger tenants moving into buildings that open in phase 2. Construction on phase 1 is scheduled to begin in June of next year, and should be completed in December of 2027.

Council will hear more about the rest of the phases in a meeting with WHA next week.

Answering a question from Mayor Bill Saffo, Garrett also addressed the status of Jervay Place — which has been a thorn in the side of the city for years. The apartments were severely damaged during Hurricane Florence in 2018, and many have sat vacant and moldering since then.

They were left in that state because the previous owners didn’t bother with repairing them. The authority purchased the buildings late last year from Telesis Corporation.

At Tuesday's City Council meeting, WHA CEO Tyrone Garrett explained his plans for the complex.

"We're in the process of working with Blue Ridge Atlantic on that particular project where we're going to demolish those 18 units that everyone walks drives by and sees that are fenced in," he told council.

That’ll happen sometime after the agency gets funding, which it will apply for from the Federal government in the spring, he said.

"So it's going to be a demolition of those 18, and we're going to erect approximately 90 units on that particular site and then come out to the front on Dawson and build another 80. So we're probably going to have about 170 or so units," Garret said.

That's in addition to rehabilitating some of the less damaged, original units, he said.

Kelly Kenoyer is an Oregonian transplant on the East Coast. She attended University of Oregon’s School of Journalism as an undergraduate, and later received a Master’s in Journalism from University of Missouri- Columbia. Contact her by email at KKenoyer@whqr.org.