CITY REHABILITATION: IMPROVEMENTS APPROACH $3 MILLION

A state grant program has enabled the city since 1982 to make almost $3 million in improvements in blighted sections of Cape Girardeau, including housing renovation and street and sewer repairs.

About 130 homes have been rehabilitated and two miles of streets and alleys have been paved through the state's Community Development Block Grant Program.

Steve Williams, Cape Girardeau's housing assistance coordinator, said the city this year will apply for a $700,000 grant that would renovate another 70 homes and pay for street and water improvements in south Cape Girardeau.

It's the sixth block grant project for the city and the fourth in the south part of town.

"The program is designed mainly to clean up the neighborhood clean up the blight," Williams said. "It's intended to make improvements to the neighborhood and make improvements to the housing."

In order to qualify for the grants, the city must find areas where there's a high concentration of substandard homes and low- to moderate-income property owners.

Currently, the city is in the second year of a two-year program in the area of College and Jefferson streets in south Cape Girardeau.

"Our new application is for an area above and between the current block grant area," Williams said.

In the new proposed project area, 30 homes are considered either dilapidated or "severely dilapidated," he said.

The area is bounded by Beaudean Lane on the west; Locust Street on the south; Fort Street and Giboney Avenue on the east; and Maple Street to Ellis, south to Elm, and west to Beaudean on the north.

"There's a total of 109 houses in the project area, which represents 77 percent of the total in the project area, that would qualify for the program," Williams said.

"We propose to do approximately 70 units, with priority given to owner-occupied units."

The Community Development Block Grant program provides up to $13,000 per unit to make repairs to the homes ranging from a new roof to new cabinets and carpeting.

For owner-occupied homes, the owner must remain in the home for at least four years after the improvements, and for rental units the housing must be made available to low- to moderate-income tenants for at least four years.

Williams said 88 percent of the 75 percent of property owners in the area who responded to a city survey qualify under income guidelines.

Also included in the grant application is $34,500 for water line improvements on Ranney and Locust and paving of Walnut Street from Sprigg to Ranney, and Elm, from Sprigg to Giboney.

Williams said the city proposes to spend $5,400 on the water line improvements and $155,700 for street repairs. The total project would result in nearly $900,000 in improvements.

Williams said cities from throughout Missouri compete for the grant funds.

"One out of six applications are approved state-wide," he said. "There are some small towns in Missouri where 80 to 90 percent of the population is low to moderate income and 80 to 90 percent of the housing units are substandard."

Still, Williams remained optimistic that the city's latest application would be approved by the state.

"The situation now is about what it was when we applied two years ago for our current program," he said. "We feel it will be approved."

Williams said the block grant program has helped improve sections of town that are economically strapped.

Previous projects included:

20A $314,000 grant in 1982 to renovate 22 homes and improve four streets in south Cape Girardeau.

A $643,000 grant in 1983 to renovate 18 homes and improve eight streets and two alleys in the Red Star area in northeast Cape Girardeau. Also, drainage improvements were made in the project area.

A $612,500 grant in 1984 to renovate 37 homes and improve four streets in south Cape Girardeau.

A $314,000 grant in 1986 to renovate 25 homes and improve Water Street in the Red Star area.

An $800,000, two-year grant awarded in 1991 to renovate more than 30 homes and segregate combined sanitary and storm sewers in the College-Jefferson area.

The city also has received a rental rehabilitation grant in the amount of $158,000. Through the program, which started last year, property owners and the state share in the cost of rehabilitation of rental units for low- to moderate-income tenants.