It is 77 years old and looks every second of it. Foote Homes was built in 1940 public housing for African Americans in Memphis, back in the day when people of different races stayed in different places. It was named after Dr. William H. Foote. It’s soon to be a goner.
Foote Homes has been, in all honesty, a rough and tumble place for the last few decades.
True story, when a new reporter came to town they were told they weren’t really a Memphis reporter until they covered their first violent crime at Foote Homes.
Normally, it didn’t take long for that to happen.
Its reputation hurt the majority of good folks trying to eek out a life here.
“The future here is bright,” exclaimed Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. It’s been decades since anybody said that about this neighborhood. Changes are coming.
“This is part of Downtown’s resurgence,” says U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-Memphis). It’s going to expand Downtown’s footstep, get people better housing. It’ll be in mixed-use housing.
It adds more of a market for a grocery store downtown. It’s going to make Memphis a better city.”
What will happen here is not just a makeover but an entire new face for an old neighborhood.
With $30-million from the city another $30 million from the Feds, this will be a mixed use, mixed income area a neighborhood that is hopefully going to make life in areas around old Foote Homes better.
“I do think revitalization of an area, bringing in more commerce, more people does help to reduce crime,” Mayor Jim Strickland says, ” But we need to do other things like hire more police officers and intervene in the lives of young people.”
At one time, Memphis had some of the worst public housing in America. The Federal Government was close to taking over the Memphis Housing Authority.
They’ve done a lot of work to change things. This is their last big job. But there is still confusion. This was marked as a demolition ceremony, but folks with the Memphis Housing Authority say at this point, they have no idea when demolition will begin.
