Wayne Gilchrest: “I'm not on the committee of jurisdiction where the HOPE project originated, but I'm interested in this issue because I…”

“I'm not on the committee of jurisdiction where the HOPE project originated, but I'm interested in this issue because I was born in what would now be called a housing project, 62 years ago. It was a housing apartment complex built many decades ago, a few years before I was born, for young families, for soldiers serving in World War II and certainly then, for the baby boom generation, for military people coming home looking for places to live. This place was called Cora Place. Now I still don't know to this day whether it was a K or a C, Cora Place. But it was a vast housing unit apartment complex for young families. I was born there 62 years ago, and there's still young families there. That place has still survived all these decades. It was built adequately. It was built with good construction techniques. It was built with good standards. It was not rebuilt. It was not demolished and rebuilt. It was built in a way, in a form, in a complex where it became a community, not an isolated pocket of poverty. It was built for a community. There are small businesses there. The standards of construction were fine. You don't waste heat. You don't waste water. You don't waste electricity. It was built for young American families. It was built for a community where there could be dignity, where there could be small businesses, where people could come together and exchange information and feel like they belonged. That's what we need to do today. That's what HOPE VI is all about.”