Once in ruin, complex now a community bright spot in Jackson $10 million renovation completed at Lincoln Garden

6:13 AM, Jun. 23, 2011 

 Joe Ellis/The Clarion-Ledger

Verna Lee lifted her 91-year-old body from its seat with the aid of a walker, then smiled a smile that could melt hearts.

“I want to stay here as long as I live,” she said, welcoming a guest into her recently renovated Lincoln Garden apartment.

Thanks to the $10 million renovation, a poorly managed, crime-ridden apartment complex has been turned into a neighborhood showplace.

Tenants, employees and local officials celebrated the completion of the 100-unit complex on Sunset Avenue on Wednesday.

Ninety-eight of the units, comprising 15 buildings, are filled, including single-person residences such as Lee’s to families of as many as eight. Floor plans have one, two, three or four bedrooms.

Lee moved into the Lincoln Gardens in the early1980s, she said, and stayed there as the complex slid into disrepair.

By 2009, after some of the apartments were condemned, she told longtime maintenance man Joe Giles, “I’ll be glad when I get out of here.”

She told her niece not to send a check for the rent. “I was moving out,” she said.

“But thank God I didn’t. I’m so proud, I can’t find the words to show my appreciation.”

The Wishcamper Companies of Maine and Rocky Mountain Development Group acquired Lincoln Garden last year with the goal of transforming the neglected property. They accessed about $100,000 in tax credits through Mississippi Home Corp., a quasi-governmental hub organization for housing created by the state in 1988.

Lincoln Garden is the fourth low-rent housing complex Wishcamper has revitalized in Jackson over the past four years. Others are The Village in south Jackson, Madonna Manor in west Jackson and Commonwealth Village, just blocks south of Lincoln Garden

“I’ve been going by that complex ever since it was built,” said Ward 4 Councilman Frank Bluntson, who attended Wednesday’s event. “I saw it in its best stage and in its worst stage.

“But thank God these companies have done such a tremendous job.”

Taq Yumi Cole, Lincoln’s manager, said residents began moving into renovated apartments in December.

“They take pride in them,” she said. “Because the conditions were bad, they didn’t feel the need to keep them up before.

“But the people living in the first unit to be rehabilitated are keeping it in immaculate condition.”

Lincoln Gardens is more than a place to call home. Residents, who must pay 30 percent of their personal income as rent, can use a computer room with Internet access and other life-skills services.

“We teach people how to buy homes, so they can someday own their own home,” new resident services coordinator Michael Harvey said.

“We teach them how to dress for job interviews, what kind of questions to expect. And we run programs for kids to keep them occupied and show ways to keep parents and kids closer together.”

Programs and housing such as this will transform the neighborhood, Giles said.

The complex has gates that require key-card access after 5 p.m. and provides security through Hinds County Sheriff’s Department. But Cole said residents are trained to see to their own security, “so more money can go to services rather than security personnel.”

Lee sat comfortably on her couch in her new apartment and threw her hands wide.

“We’ve come a long way,” she said.