Inside Report for March 19, 2008

• By KORAN ADDO
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Mar 19, 2008 - Page: 7B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Five years ago, the East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority moved 64-year-old Jerry Ellis out of her dilapidated East Boulevard public housing apartment in Old South Baton Rouge, and into an apartment in Tiger Town.

The plan was for the housing authority’s neighborhood revitalization program, HOPE VI — Helping Out People Everywhere — to relocate Ellis and dozens of her neighbors into temporary housing until they could be moved back into new homes in their old neighborhood.

For Ellis, who doesn’t drive and relies on public transportation, the move back to her old neighborhood means a return to the convenience of city bus lines in walking distance.

But what was supposed to be a two-year relocation has ballooned to five.

Part of the delay can be chalked up to Hurricane Katrina. A lack of available laborers and the rising cost of building materials in the wake of the storm set the project back a few years, said Richard Murray, the housing authority’s executive director.

In spite of those setbacks, the new development, named RiverSouth, was supposed to be finished by the end of January. Residents were told moving trucks were coming Feb. 21 to move them  into brand new homes — the first for Ellis and for many of the development’s residents.

On Feb. 21, Ellis had her belongings packed and ready to go, but the moving trucks didn’t come.

Housing authority officials said the delays are beyond their control.

About three months ago, vandals cut through a barbed wire fence surrounding the new development and helped themselves to specially ordered cabinets installed in the unfinished homes.

Another time, looters broke into the homes and stole water heaters.

On March 10, someone broke into the site in the middle of the night and emptied about 150 gallons of diesel fuel meant for construction equipment.

And on and on.

Vandalism to water lines, stolen light fixtures, leaking refrigerant lines, utilities assigned to the wrong units, missing sewage lines and vandals destroying walls looking for copper, all have contributed to the delays, contractors and housing authority officials said.