Future of Lyman Terrace still up in the air - CBS 3 Springfield - WSHM

Future of Lyman Terrace still up in the air

The fate of a Holyoke housing complex is still up in the air after city officials and residents met to talk about their options Monday night.

In the past, housing officials have looked into getting the Lyman Terrace complex demolished.

Holyoke Housing authorities say they are looking into three other options besides demolition, which would displace about 400 tenants.

But residents Monday night were still looking for answers.

"Right now my worry is, where am I going to find a house in 60 days?" asked Vice President of Lyman Terrace Patricio Mattei.

Mattei sat in Monday night's meeting, still unsure whether housing officials will follow through with rehabbing the 167 units, known as Lyman Terrace.

"The reason why we're doing that is, myself, I've got six kids," he said.

Residents packed the meeting eager to learn the fate of their homes.

Besides demolition, which housing officials say may not be the answer, there are three options.

• Option 1: rehabbing some buildings, cleaning up open spaces.
• Option 2: renovate all buildings, selective demolition, install community garden, basketball court and walking path.
• Option 3: the same as option 2, except there would be on-street parking instead of a walking path.

"At this point, these are really just kind of visions ... fingers crossed, we believe we're in the realm of the feasible," said the architect for the project, Matthew Littell.

The options would cost millions of dollars, at the very least about $120,000 per unit.

But Mattei says the dollars don't count - he and his neighbors are fed up with the conditions and even the maintenance staff.

"They are irresponsible, they start a job, they don't finish it, they go into a unit without permission removing stuff. Come on, that's not right," he said.

Housing officials say they agree with Mattei.

"Those are system-wide problems in the buildings that need to be uprooted and changed," said Director of Planning and Economic Development Marcos Marrero.

Mattei says if conditions don't change, he has already looked into filing a lawsuit.

"They need to focus on the conditions of the unit," he said.

Housing officials say they now need to seek out a development partner to continue in this process.

They say they will try and seek grants to pay for rehabbing the units.

Copyright 2013 WSHM (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.