Portsmouth residents get two chances this month to tell the city what they want built on the 17-acre site where the Swanson Homes public housing complex once stood. The Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority is hosting a pair of in-person sessions, the first on Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Bide-A-Wee Golf Course, with a second set for Oct. 21 from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Neighborhood Facility Recreation Center.
The outreach effort comes as PRHA tries to figure out what should replace a complex that sat empty for years after its final tenants were relocated in 2023, according to WAVY.com. The property was fully demolished in June, per WAVY.com, which reported the housing authority is hosting two input sessions to let the community share their thoughts on the future of the 17-acre former Swanson Homes site. Before PRHA asks developers what they would build on the land, the station notes, the authority wants to know what residents want to see there first.
A Complex With Roots Back to Wartime Housing
Swanson Homes originally opened in 1941 as part of a wartime housing push, and at its peak held 210 units serving low-income families, the same WAVY.com report states. WAVY later reported that the property was demolished in June. Private developers had previously shown no interest in purchasing or redeveloping the property, and a $500,000 Choice Neighborhood Grant from HUD that PRHA had sought was not awarded, the station's earlier coverage noted.
With the site now cleared, PRHA leadership has floated one possible direction. Executive Director Alisa Winston said the goal is mixed-use development, the Pilot reported in January, though the newspaper's reporting does not specify what types of units or uses that might ultimately include. The housing authority oversees more than 1,200 units of affordable and voucher-based housing across the city, a scope that underscores how much is riding on getting the Swanson Homes site right.
Funding Pressures Behind the Push for New Investment
The site's future comes as PRHA works through broader capacity constraints elsewhere in its portfolio. The authority can only complete 10 to 15 senior rehabilitation requests each year even though it has received 60 applications, the Pilot reported in its January coverage of the agency. To ease those pressures, Winston has asked City Council to consider a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program to reduce the authority's overall tax burden, along with a housing trust fund meant to cut PRHA's reliance on federal and state funding by boosting local investment.
Portsmouth is not alone in grappling with how to replace aging public housing. In Richmond, the redevelopment authority has pursued a plan to demolish its six largest public housing developments and replace them with mixed-income units over several years, according to VPM. That effort has affected roughly 10,000 public housing residents, with the city's approach built around residents eventually living alongside wealthier neighbors in communities where units show little visible distinction between income levels. Richmond's plan also built in temporary relocation assistance and credits or vouchers meant to help displaced tenants rent or buy homes, with some potentially returning to redeveloped neighborhoods, and the city's housing authority engaged residents directly to hear what they wanted in new homes before finalizing those plans.
Portsmouth's own effort is still in its early, listening-focused phase. The two October sessions give PRHA a chance to gather resident feedback before developers are brought into the conversation.
