Home Alone

Workcuff got a check for $71,000 in June 2003. He also qualified for, and was promised, the federal relocation funds. But by then, the CDC of KC had no money to help him move. CEO Threatt and Anthony Crompton, the CDC's real estate director, had underestimated the cost of buying out all of the homeowners and had run out of money.

Here's why: Federal rules dictate that a homeowner's relocation money is based on the condition of the house he plans to move into, says Edgar Jordan of the city's Property and Relocation Division. HUD inspectors must determine that the new house is in the same condition as the previous dwelling or better. If Workcuff tries to buy another house, he risks the possibility that it won't pass inspection from HUD eyeballers, who would then deny his relocation money.

To further complicate the issue, Health Midwest, which used to be in charge of the TIF district, is now out of the picture. The for-profit HCA bought the nonprofit hospital system in April 2003. Now HCA officials are deciding how much of the previous hospital's charitable work they want to continue.

"We're trying to figure out what to do with these four projects that don't help HCA directly," says Will MacArthur, Research Medical Center's vice president of community affairs and the only employee held over from the Health Midwest administration. Besides Project G, MacArthur oversees the other three commercial redevelopments along 63rd Street, which include the New Landing Mall on 63rd and Troost, the old Metro Plaza shopping center, and an abandoned building on Meyer and Prospect formerly occupied by US Bank.

"I mean, we benefit by creating a good environment to do business in," MacArthur says. He adds that he's heard "from the senior level of HCA" that the group is committed to sticking with those projects until they're finished. Until then, Workcuff gets to live in his old house rent-free, MacArthur points out.

Both MacArthur and Threatt are optimistic that they're close to landing a developer who will commit to financing the last part of the project on Wabash. "They tell me it will be done in the next couple weeks," MacArthur says. "Hopefully, when they come in with their plan, they will tell us how to get those five houses and people out of there to move on with their lives."

Meanwhile, the task force set up by Cauthen has just completed a list of priorities to guide the city manager in molding a new housing department. At the final meeting at the end of October, a few task-force members touted the possibility of partnering city forces with funders from the private sector.

But that technique doesn't look so brilliant from 63rd and Wabash.

That task force also wants to encourage homeownership in the city.

Workcuff remembers being a homeowner. But the next time he buys a house, he says, it won't be in Kansas City. "I'll move to Raytown or something," he says. "Out there, they don't put up with it. In the inner city, they don't care."