The vision of its directors and commissioners has kept the Clearwater Housing Authority in the forefront of public housing agencies nationwide for more than a decade. The agency has been quick to try new techniques or to explore innovations developed elsewhere, with results that ultimately benefited Clearwater residents in need of public housing.
Now, the Housing Authority is stepping out again.
Later this year, the Housing Authority plans to demolish the squat, sprawling Jasmine Courts public housing project located just west of the intersection of Drew Street and McMullen-Booth Road and replace it with a subdivision of single-family homes and modern apartments. Low-income people will be able to live there among residents with higher incomes.
On maps and in local memories, Jasmine Courts still is known as Condon Gardens, the housing project that was notorious for its ramshackle buildings, trashed grounds, drug sales, shootings and riots. Condon Gardens had almost 300 units and was home to more than 1,000 residents in the '70s and '80s. Conditions were so bad at the complex in the 1970s and first half of the '80s that people who didn't live there gave the place a wide berth, and Condon Gardens residents who wanted a better life tried to get away.
It was a former director with vision, the late Deborah Vincent, who did the hard work of turning around Condon Gardens. Vincent believed that low-income people, who lived quietly at Condon Gardens and followed the rules, deserved to live in a clean, safe community. She risked the wrath of both tenants and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by evicting troublemakers and illegal tenants and forcing residents to register their cars so nonresidents could be identified, even though some legal tenants left because of the strict rules.
Vincent also partnered with Clearwater police Chief Sid Klein to reduce crime in the complex, providing space for a police substation, which opened in 1987, and supporting the sometimes controversial efforts of police officers assigned to the complex.
Though HUD complained about empty apartments, Vincent persisted and the tide began to turn at Condon Gardens. The residents who remained found there were rewards: Public money was invested in the complex and grounds, a tenant association was formed, life skills classes were organized and a Neighborhood Watch group was created. Residents were given a voice in the affairs of their community, and they could let their children play outside again.
By the mid to late 1990s, the Housing Authority, under new director Jacqueline Rivera, was hearing from residents that it was time to distance the complex from its unsavory past. The florally inspired name "Jasmine Courts" replaced "Condon Gardens," and a renovation of the complex was undertaken.
Yet, just a glance at the complex made it clear that it was mired in the past, not representative of the future. The trend in public housing was away from large public housing projects and toward a system of housing vouchers that allowed low-income people to find homes in the private marketplace among people who paid full market price for their homes.
What to do with Jasmine Courts? The Housing Authority found an innovative solution in the subdivision plan. HUD apparently agrees, since it will supply $2.5-million to help clear the way for the new community by paying to relocate the 230 families that still live there. The total cost of the project will be $35-million to $50-million. Some 200 apartments and 60 to 80 houses will be built on the 40 acres of cleared land. The authority is still working on the construction financing, but hopes to begin demolition in December.
Few will lament the loss of Condon Gardens/Jasmine Courts, especially when a whole new neighborhood with modern homes starts rising in its place.
