The next phase of new public housing in Charleston is under way, as crews worked Tuesday to demolish three of the six remaining buildings at Littlepage Terrace.
The razing of Littlepage is part of a years-long effort to replace Charleston's older public housing stock with new structures.
By the end of this year, the remaining buildings that comprised Littlepage Terrace will be demolished, said Kenny Powell, director of facilities maintenance for the Charleston-Kanawha Housing Authority.
"We tore this down in phases because it's so difficult to displace and relocate all these folks," Powell said. "We want to do this systematically so no one has problems acquiring housing."
Construction has already begun on the first phase of new units to replace Littlepage, which will include six, two-story townhomes comprising 24 one and two bedroom housing units.
More buildings will be constructed in the future, Powell said.
He said the new units will be "exactly" like the townhomes recently added to Orchard Manor and Washington Manor.
Powell said construction crews already started pouring concrete footers for two of the new buildings earlier this week.
Littlepage Terrace was built nearly 80 years ago and originally contained 170 housing units.
Powell said the last residents of the complex moved out in February.
He said the former residents had multiple options for housing, such as moving into another public complex or applying for a voucher to move into Section 8 housing.
Over the decades, Littlepage Terrace degraded into "obsolescence," Powell said.
The three-story buildings had no air conditioning. The barracks-style units had washer hookups, but no dryer hookups, Powell said. The enclosed stairways and entrances and the general layout of the buildings made decreased visibility and "lended a lot of opportunity to criminal activity," he said. "It was very difficult to manage."
Powell said the original design made it "quite a nice place to live, but ... as times changed, it created some of the problems Littlepage experienced."
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.