The North Carolina-based leadership of the Housing Authority of Atlantic Beach is the latest agency with a new plan to lift the town out of its current governmental quagmire, calling a special meeting Wednesday to unveil its vision of a public-private redevelopment inside the troubled town.
"The town is in dire straits. They're even having trouble getting meetings called,'' said David Meachem, executive director of the Statesville (N.C.) Housing Authority, which manages public housing in Atlantic Beach. "It's a possibility that we could get beyond that, and go on developing Atlantic Beach the way of the people who had the vision to create the town.''
After the indictments and suspensions of its town manager and mayor in March, the Municipal Association of
South Carolina sent in interim Town Manager Charles Williams to help restore the deeply indebted town to
solvency and get on the road to development. His major proposals, however, have largely been rejected by the Town Council in a series of 2-2 votes, leading to the Municipal Association's decision late last month to begin withdrawing.
Like the Municipal Association, the Statesville Housing Authority is providing contractual management to Atlantic Beach's public housing, arriving in 2004 after housing's own set of local leadership scandals. The housing program is now beginning some major changes, as its 14 beach-side units are now empty and up for sale, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is considering a similar move for the remaining 40 units on the west side of U.S. 17.
Monolithic public-housing units all over the country are being abandoned in favor of mixed-housing developments, Meachem said.
"We don't want to set public housing as some sort of monstrosity here by itself,'' Meachem said.
Meachem said that push for an overall re-evaluation of public housing in Atlantic Beach -- at the same time that the Town Council is having its own problems -- creates an opportunity for his agency to offer itself in a stronger leadership role. While declining to reveal the details of his plan until a joint meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday with the Town Council, he said it will include the use of federal neighborhood-stabilization grants and the strong presence of private development.
"By no means do we want to run the town,'' Meachem said. "But it's going to take some tightening of belts, some discipline changes, and some behavior changes.''
The plan's starting point is the often-stated assumption that federal authorities will find all the town's public housing too old to continue using and order a new start. If some of the buildings are deemed salvagable, Meachem said, they could be rolled into the plan.
"I'm not going to give away the farm, but I am interested in a partnership,'' Meachem said. "If we can help, we ought to help.''
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