Renovation Report: Southside Homes

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Editor’s note:  “Renovation Report” is a Mecklenburg Times profile of a property being renovated in the Charlotte area.

The Charlotte Housing Authority is the city’s public-housing organization responsible for putting roofs over the heads of people who may otherwise have trouble affording a place to live in the city.

The thing about putting roofs over heads, though, is that those roofs must be in good condition.

So to ensure it was putting proper roofs over those heads, the CHA is spending more than $250,000 to fix the roofs that have been up since 1952 at the Southside Homes, a public-housing community on Griffith Street and Fairwood and Baltimore avenues, southwest of uptown.

Starting in March, Charlotte-based D.E. Walker Construction began putting new shingles on the residences at Southside, updating the community that has been around for more than a half-century.

D.E. Walker is, in total, putting new shingles on 136 units in 36 buildings at Southside, which sits on about 40 acres and is home to 689 residents, according to Deborah Clark, director of communications and research for the CHA.

Southside is a low-income community, available for rent to families and to the elderly, Clark said. However, a caveat exists for those trying to rent in the community: To qualify to live at Southside, potential residents must make 30 percent or less than the area mean income.

Contractors interested in working with the CHA on future renovation projects must respond to a request for qualifications, which are often issued with no specific project attached.

Clark said the intent of the RFQ is to establish a pool of qualified vendors for the various materials and services that the CHA needs for its construction projects.

Once the CHA has a project to award, the request for proposals is issued to only those contractors that have been screened – and approved – to work for the CHA in the RFQ process.

GUION can be reached at [email protected], (704) 817-1344 or on Twitter at @paytonguion.

Project description: Putting new shingles on roofs of the units at Southside Homes.

Address: Southside Homes has units on Griffith Street, as well as on Fairwood and Baltimore avenues in southwest Charlotte.

Cost: $254,200, according to Mecklenburg County records.

Space under renovation: 136 units

General Contractor: D.E. Walker Construction

Construction began: March 13

Completion date: End of March