GEORGE FOSTER PEABODY APARTMENTS RELOCATION EFFORTS RESIDENTS MAKE WAY FOR WRECKING BALL
PEABODY FAMILIES SAY FEELING OF COMMUNITY DESTROYED WITH COMPLEX

By Chuck Williams
Staff Writer

Roy Lee White flashes a smile and speaks with quiet certainty.

He knows what he likes. Sixty-six years have taught him that much.

A longtime resident of George Foster Peabody apartments, White is one of about 800 people caught in a massive year-long relocation effort that is entering its final stages.

The 64-year-old public housing complex along Talbotton Road will be torn down later this year to make way for a mixed-income community made possible by a $20 million federal HOPE VI grant.

White didn't want to leave. For more than three decades, his world has revolved around Peabody and its proximity to the things and people he needs. His doctor is nearby. He eats breakfast --- sausage, eggs, grits and fresh coffee --- every weekday morning at the Country Kitchen.

"I still don't believe they are going to tear it down," White said late last week.

Pulling up stakes

Peabody has a date with destruction. About 40 of the complex's 51 buildings are boarded up, awaiting the wrecking ball. That demolition will start later this summer and likely be completed by early next year.

Late last year, White had a decision to make, the same decision all the people living in Peabody faced:

• He could move into another of the city's 12 public housing complexes.
• He could find an apartment and use a Section 8 voucher, a federal program that subsidizes rent for low-income residents.
• He could leave public housing altogether.

On his own, White found an apartment, not 100 yards from Peabody. He loaded up all of his belongings --- a bed, a sofa, a table and chair, small television, a couple of pots and pans, one fork, one spoon and two drinking glasses --- and moved.

With the help of his family advocate, Richard Wells, the move took less than an hour.

Why is it so important for White to stay along Talbotton Road? Because he was able to stay near all he treasured.

"I know everybody," White said. "When I get ready to go to the doctor, I can walk. It is important for me to stay here, I didn't have any other place to go."

Community is home

Len Williams understands what White is saying. Williams is the executive director of the Housing Authority of Columbus and he is overseeing the Peabody transformation.

"You see this as the projects," Williams told a reporter sitting in the near vacant community room at Peabody last week. "They don't see it that way. It is a loss to them. This is their community --- their neighborhood.

"I don't know what that means. But I think it is important."

Iona Satterfield knows what it means. Satterfield, a 20-year Peabody resident, and her 10-year-old son moved in December to Warren Williams Homes, a public housing complex about a mile away.

"You have to realize that people have been living here for five, 10, 20, even 60 years," Satterfield said. "This is their home. Peabody was a safety net. You had the store, the doughnut shop, the doctors. Everyone knew each other."

Things have changed for the nearly 300 Peabody families who have been relocated. And things will change for the nearly 50 families still left in the mostly vacant complex.

Just ask Satterfield, who is still adjusting to life in Warren Williams, where the apartments have air conditioners and the units are not as tightly packed together as Peabody.

And the rules are stricter.

"Now, it is: 'Do I or don't I? Should I or shouldn't I?' '' Satterfield said. "That trust, feeling of community and belonging is not there yet."

Accepting change

A team of counselors has been working with Peabody residents for more than a year. They are helping them adjust. That adjustment might be as simple as helping field new doctors, new schools and new modes of transportation or it could be as complex as providing job training and tapping into adult education programs.

Richard Wells is one of those counselors, employed by The Pastoral Institute, to help ease the Peabody residents' transition.

"I don't think a lot of people understood how big of a change was going to happen," Wells said. "They moved away from things that are near and dear to them. Some of them didn't realize how big a burden it was going to be."

Each resident caught in the whirlwind of change has a story.

White's story has a happy ending. He is still eating his eggs and grits daily at the Country Kitchen. On the short walk from his apartment to the restaurant, he can see Peabody's boarded-up buildings. The plywood has been painted red in a vain attempt to match the 65-year-old brick.

Not everyone has made the adjustment as well as White. Satterfield hears the sadness from those who have left Peabody.

"I have had plenty of Peabody residents who told me they wish they could rip the boards off those windows and go back home," she said.

WHAT IS A HOPE VI GRANT?

Federal funds granted through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HOPE VI was established to aid distressed public housing organizations in larger cities and modified to help smaller cities with older complexes. The government has spent nearly $5 billion on HOPE VI, which provided money to tear down 115,000 public housing units and revitalize 85,000 others into mostly larger modern townhomes and detached homes that would create mixed-income communities.

TIMELINE

• March 5, 2003 --- The Housing Authority of Columbus awarded a $20 million federal HOPE VI grant for the demolition and reconstruction of Peabody Apartments along Talbotton Road.
• June 2003 --- Relocation began of the more than 300 families living in Peabody.
• July 15, 2004 --- Demolition of Peabody Apartments will begin.
• Sept. 1 --- The relocation of the Peabody families should be finished.
• June 1, 2005 --- Demolition should be finished.
• December 2005 --- New construction will begin on the first phase, which will produce about 180 new apartments.
• July 2006 --- New construction will begin on the second phase, which will produce about 180 new apartments.
• December 2006 --- Construction on the first phase is scheduled to be finished.
• December 2007 --- Construction on the second phase is scheduled to be finished.