Public housing in Denver is in the midst of dramatic transformation.

Low-income tenants are moving into new upscale developments where they live next door to middle-class professionals. And housing projects built in the 1950s face the wrecking ball, with multistory complexes that would look at home in many of the city's affluent neighborhoods set to replace them.

The idea is to end the isolation of the poor in public housing and help them enter the mainstream of American life.

It's a transition being fueled by a downtown boom as well as planning for FasTracks light-rail lines. The Denver Housing Authority is finding that its once-marginal properties, particularly those near future public-transit stations, are now coveted by developers. As a result, the agency is actively pursuing joint ventures with real estate companies.

"Public housing is coming into a whole new era," said Ismael Guerrero, director of DHA. "It's a renaissance period. This is about reconnecting our developments into the fabric of the community."Many public-housing tenants, however, fear losing their homes, as DHA makes sweeping plans for the future. Even though some DHA projects have a high crime rate, they're still home.

"A lot of people are rooted here, and they're concerned about what could happen to them," said Juanita Vigil, president of the South Lincoln Homes residents council.

Early developments isolated

DHA dates back to 1938, when it became Denver's first public-housing agency. Some of its initial projects housed veterans returning from World War II.Over time, the poor in Denver and elsewhere were concentrated in isolated developments. The resulting lawlessness and despair tarnished the reputation of public housing in Denver and many other places. DHA has 32 housing sites across the city.

But the shifting demand for DHA-held properties is allowing the agency to partner with private developers and nonprofit housing providers to create complexes that combine public housing with apartments that rent at market rates and others that are reserved for people whose income meets certain guidelines.

It's part of a mixed-income model taking shape across the country. Even Chicago, once home to some of the worst projects in the country, has torn down many of its notorious high-rises, replacing them with complexes that mix the poor and the middle class.

DHA's reconstruction of its large Curtis Park project, which opened in 2004, was the first example of this new model in Denver. Now the agency has undertaken its largest project yet, building hundreds of units east of downtown in a project called Benedict Park Place.

Benedict Park Place was once the site of one of the most notorious housing projects in Denver - the old East Village complex, which was rife with gang violence.

But the development now rising along Park Avenue West and Tremont Place represents the new face of public housing in Denver. With its elaborate brickwork and gables, the apartment building looks like one of the dozens of high-end residential projects springing up in the city's center.

Low-income renters in public housing, with an average income each year of $10,000, live next door to lawyers and accountants who pay up to $764 a month for a one-bedroom apartment.

"It takes away the stigma that was widely associated with public housing," said the Rev. James Peters Jr., who serves on the DHA board.

Benedict Park Place will have 873 units, ranging from apartments for public-housing tenants to expensive owner-occupied townhomes. A 124-unit apartment building opened this year in the first phase and is already fully leased. About a quarter of the residents qualify for public housing.

"You don't know which units are public housing and which are market rate," said Bill Mosher, chairman of the DHA board. "I think economic integration is healthy."

Ted Freeman has had a front-row seat watching the transformation of East Village. The president of the Enterprise Hill Homeowner's Association lives across the street and vividly remembers the early 1990s, when gang violence was so bad that he wondered if he should install bulletproof windows.

"In the summer of 1993, the Crips had taken over East Village," Freeman said. "It's night and day between what it was then and what it is now."

A model is born

Mosher said that Benedict Park and the previous overhaul of Curtis Park will serve as models for the eventual redevelopment of DHA's large projects in Sun Valley and South Lincoln Park.

DHA has received millions of dollars in federal funding to help finance the reconstruction so far. Denver will have the same number of public-housing units when the overhaul is complete, but will have added hundreds of apartments geared toward middle-class and working-class residents.

In Mosher's view, DHA should be the city's largest catalyst to develop affordable housing, including for working people who find central Denver an increasingly expensive place to live.

"Firefighters and schoolteachers should be able to live in the communities they serve," Mosher said.

The agency recently launched a full-time development office, staffed with experienced real estate hands. Both Guerrero and Mosher have years of experience in real estate development. Mosher is the area director for Trammell Crow, a huge national real-estate firm.

DHA is now involved in a planning process with the city and neighbors to create master plans for South Lincoln Park and Sun Valley. South Lincoln Park is near an existing light-rail station and Sun Valley will be near a coming FasTracks station. When this phase of the process ends in November, the agency will be able to start making plans to redevelop the sites.

"All of a sudden, public-housing property is valuable," Mosher said. "We have to parlay that into new construction."

But the prospect has some residents worried.

Consider the Sun Valley neighborhood. It has long had one of the highest crime rates in Denver. Drug dealing, shootings and robberies have made the area a place many people avoid.

"You can't walk around at night," said Vanessa Sandoval, who has lived in Sun Valley for three years. "You never know what you're going to run into. There's too many gangsters and bad kids."A new start

That track record is one of the reasons Denver wants to tear down Sun Valley Homes and start over. The project is on 30 acres along the South Platte River just south of Invesco Field.

"If you look at Sun Valley, it's very isolated," Mosher said. "It doesn't have a definable character. Can you create a residential atmosphere?"

More than 833 people call the project home. Many of them have heard of the new plans, and some of them fear losing the only home they have.

"It's not fair to the people who can't afford regular rent," said Nicole Rodriguez, 23. "They're going to just throw people out."

DHA insists that's not the case. But it was criticized in 2004 when the Curtis Park project opened for not doing enough to bring back former residents who were evicted during construction. Now the agency says it will give residents of Sun Valley and South Lincoln Park priority to move back if those complexes are torn down.

"Everybody has options for relocation, and they have priority for returning," Guerrero said.

A common image of public-housing residents is that they're lazy and live most of their lives in the projects. Guerrero says that, for most people, public housing is a temporary situation as they rebuild their lives.

"The stereotype is not true," he said. "Many of our families are working and paying as much as they can in rent. They're in school and job-training programs. The average stay is five years."

Residents must pass criminal-background checks. Drug dealing and other crimes are grounds for eviction.

Guerrero says the changes under way in DHA parallel what he tries to tell residents about taking advantage of opportunities to change their lives.

"The things we've been talking to our families about - not being isolated, self-sufficiency, all those things we're preaching to our residents - are mirrored at the organizational level. We want to be a better partner with the city and have public-private partnerships.

"This isn't an agency stuck in the past."

steerss@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2282

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