The Poindexter Legacy Committee (“PLC”), a project of the Coalition for the Responsible and Sustainable Development of the Near East Side (“CRSDNES,” or “the Coalition”) and the Poindexter Historic Advisory Committee, submitted on September 22nd a proposal for the repurposing and rehabilitation of the last two remaining historic buildings at Poindexter Village, the former public housing community on the Near East Side.
  The owner, Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (“CMHA”) has held off on demolition of the last two buildings after community objection to the mass demolition of the historic complex – the first public housing community in the nation addressing housing needs for black Americans in the segregated 1940s. Its opening was attended by President Roosevelt, as he sought to help Americans recover from the Great Depression, and launched public housing as one means of improving the lives of Americans.
 Through the preservation effort launched by the PLC, three private investor/developer groups indicated interest in purchasing and rehabilitating some or all of this historic community, which was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, but the CMHA/PACT partners pursued demolition of 33 of the 35 buildings. Two buildings remain as a result of a federally-required review where an Expert Group appointed by the City Historic Preservation Officer concluded the original historic buildings could have been rehabbed to market standards for less than the cost of the planned new replacement housing development.
  A consultant study called for a $6 million rehab including a museum/learning center with annual operating expenses expected to be $346,000. Both the CRSDNES and CMHA were skeptical that this proposal was feasible – one of the few areas of agreement over the past three years. In response to the CMHA and the consultant’s study, the PLC submitted a proposal to narrow the cost gap and ensure consideration of a project that was both feasible and sustainable.

  The project proposed by PLC divides reuse of the 24 housing units in the remaining two buildings into two parts. First is a $1.1 million renovation that would take four units and convert them into a museum and learning center focusing on the Great Migration of rural, southern Blacks to the urban north from World War I to 1960. It would include a contextual history of the role of public housing in this community and highlight the excellence of Rev. James Poindexter – the city’s first Black council member, elected in 1880 – who Poindexter Village was named after.

  The second part allocates the remaining 20 units for a yet-to-be-determined residential use, which could be market-based or an institution-supported “community of interest” concept around music, arts, history or another topic relevant to the history of the Near East Side and its Black residents.
  Rents from the proposed residential component would pay operating expenses for the proposed museum and learning center, which would be scaled to a sustainable neighborhood size with a budget of less than $100,000 and one staff person. Key to the proposal would be securing grant funding for capital costs and having CMHA and PACT allow the project to be mixed use, including residential – something CMHA had rejected in the past.
 The proposal notes the PACT plan for 449 units of housing in the area and calls for these 20 units to be a part of them – located appropriately in an existing historic apartment building. The proposal also provides a market assessment of the demand for retail and commercial office space – noting the nearly 50 percent vacancy rate for that space in the area and the weak demand which would make dedicated commercial rehabilitation unfeasible.   
  Committee member Calvin Hairston said, “It’s about preserving our culture and our history, but for some reason when it comes to Black Columbus the political environment is all messed up. What has happened to the fight for us? The Near East Side is the cradle for Columbus’s Black History, but at the rate we’re going now, there will be nothing. And when we challenge the establishment by saying we want to preserve our history, they look at us like ‘Huh?’ Over the last 15 years we have had all kinds of power – the Mayor, Safety Director, Police Chief, Fire Chief, City Attorney – and our own people look at you like ‘What are you doing?’ Where are we, Black Columbus? Who is leading us? It is a sad commentary.”
  Chief Baba Shongo, of the Urban Community Art Gallery, serves as coordinator of this effort, and says “While the vast majority of the buildings were demolished last year, it is important that we recognize the hopes and dreams of Black Columbusites as they endured and thrived through hard times. There are too many who think negatively of public housing without recognizing the strong families and community leaders who thrived in this safe, high-quality housing during this period of time.” Shongo and others believe Poindexter Village was a national treasure that married the end of the Great Migration with President Roosevelt’s New Deal housing program to help Americans get back on their feet following the Great Depression. That story should not be bulldozed but should be showed and learned from.