HOME IMPROVEMENT: GRANTS AIMED AT UPGRADING CAPE'S NEIGHBORHOODS (COMING HOME: CONTINUING SERIES)

Steven Williams is pointing out houses in the 700 block of Ranney Street.

"We did that one," he says, "and that one, and that one across the street and that house back there."

Williams, the housing assistance coordinator for the city of Cape Girardeau, is pointing out houses rehabilitated under an ongoing Community Development Block Grant.

The grant, awarded in 1995 to upgrade substandard housing in the Locust-Maple area of South Cape, is still active.

Williams is awaiting word from the state Department of Economic Development on when funds for a $446,500 grant to upgrade 31 substandard houses in the Jefferson-Shawnee Parkway neighborhood can be released.

So far, the city has received applications from 22 homeowners in the Jefferson-Shawnee Parkway project area.

Each of those applications will be reviewed to see if the homeowners meet the required income and residency guidelines.

The project area is bounded by Sprigg Street on the west, Shawnee Parkway (New Highway 74) on the south, Fountain Street on the east and Jefferson Avenue on the west.

When work in the Jefferson-Shawnee Parkway area is finished, Williams said, residents will notice the same difference that's now visible in the Locust-Maple area.

In the 700 block of South Ranney, "this whole block has completely changed," Williams said.

"The good thing about doing the program is that we're here and we saw it before work was done," he said. "We can tell the difference. The individual that's just driving through here, they see a nice neighborhood, but they don't know why that is."

DeVault Remodeling is at work putting a new roof, new siding and new windows in at the home of a 59-year-old man. On the inside, they'll do plumbing work and install a new water heater and furnace for the homeowner and rewire the electrical system.

"I've been here a while and the house needed a whole lot of work done," said the homeowner, who didn't want his name used.

The man's neighbors on both sides have had their houses upgraded through the grant, as has his neighbor across the street.

The roofing material on his house is visibly rotting. Paint is peeling and cracks are visible in the wood siding.

The man's house is probably more than 100 years old, Williams said, but it's structurally sound.

Williams peeled a chunk of paint off the side of the house.

"You can tell by the way it curls up that there's lead in it," he said. "We test to make sure, but you can tell."

Vinyl siding will be nailed directly onto the wood to contain the lead and make the house snug, he said.

"When we get through, it'll be like brand new," Williams said.

The Locust-Maple project, funded through a two-year, $733,500 block grant, will upgrade 36 houses once it's completed. There are still funds left to rehab eight or nine more houses.

"We're still taking applications here," Williams said, adding that bids will be sought this week for upgrading four more homes in the project area.

In the one-block area around the man's home, the Locust-Maple grant has paid for bringing seven homes up to standard, Williams said.

The city's share of the project includes installing sidewalks along Ranney, paving Walnut Street and an alley and doing curb and gutter work.

Several Community Development Block Grants have been awarded the city to upgrade housing in South Cape.

Since 1982, Cape Girardeau has received $3.8 million in block grants for bringing housing up to standard all over the city.

What Williams especially likes to see is how pouring public funds into a neighborhood will prompt homeowners to spend their own money to fix up their property.

"There's a ripple effect," he said.

Dave DeVault, the contractor at work on South Ranney Street, agreed.

"When we start working in a neighborhood, a lot of people will start picking up around their property," he said. "The next thing you know, people that didn't get grants will start doing work on their houses."

The block grants upgrade existing housing, which helps stabilize neighborhoods and gives people safe places to live, Williams said.

And there's another important benefit, he said. When lending institutions see houses being renovated in a neighborhood, residents who live there will qualify for longer-term loans so they can afford to buy or upgrade their own houses.

New houses are going up in South Cape. Special tax credits allow builders to construct housing for low- to moderate-income families.

On Hackberry Street, a new 48-unit apartment complex for moderate-income families will be built, Williams said.

"This program gives new life to an old neighborhood," he said.

However, it will be a while before any work starts in the Jefferson-Shawnee Parkway project, Williams said.

The state is waiting to complete a public comment period on the project, and Williams is fairly sure his office will have to iron out concerns that some of the houses in the project area may be deemed historic, which delays the rehabilitation work.

Usually when the state's historic preservation office sees the shape the houses are in, he said, they agree to allow the renovations.

Williams said the city isn't concentrating the grants on South Cape deliberately; that's where most of the city's older housing stock is, so that's where the grant projects are going.

In the meantime, applications are coming in for the Jefferson-Shawnee Parkway project, and applications are still being accepted for the Locust-Maple project.