WEST VALLEY CITY — There's a lot of light these days pouring into a street that was once a dark tunnel of illegal drugs, gang activity, crime, blight and poverty.
The one-block long Harvey Street is now home to a lot of dirt mounds and two newly framed buildings. Not one of the original 30 or so structures from six months ago exists.
At one time, Harvey Street was internationally infamous, recalled Layne Morris, director of the city's housing authority. He heard about an illegal alien arrested outside of Utah who had on his person a list of safe havens in the United States — and Harvey Street, located at 3300 West and 3650 South, was on the list.
"If you were a criminal or illegal alien trying to hide out, keep a low profile, rent a place with no questions asked and be left alone, Harvey Street was the place," Morris said.
The list was one of the final straws heaped upon the city over the years as Harvey Street drained money, time and resources from the city without any major improvements to show. It was time to clean it up.
"I think that's when we finally got serious about it," Morris said.
Now, in cooperation with Utah Non-Profit Housing Corp. and Community Housing Services, the city is gaining a dozen new buildings with 88 apartment units and 79 units of senior housing, which will be called Wright Villas after the city's late Mayor Gearld Wright. All of the units will be available to low- to moderate-income families.
Rent in the 88 apartments will be about $300 to $600 per month while seniors can expect to pay around $200 a month.
Utah Non-Profit closed on a loan recently for about $5.8 million for the Harvey Street project while the city used about $3.4 million of its federal community block grant money, mostly for property acquisition.
"We've really put a lot into this," Morris said. He already has his sights set on a few similar areas in the city, which city leaders say is shedding its image as Utah's crime capital.
The new residents of Harvey Street will have access to a swimming pool and a community building with a computer lab.
"It's going to be the difference between night and day," said Utah Non-Profit executive director Marion Willey. "People are going to love it."
But it's been a tough 18-month road to get to this point, where Willey can predict that people will be living on Harvey Street again by possibly September. Attorneys at the federal, state, county and local levels, as well as Utah Non-Profit's own attorney, all had a hand in property acquisition, relocating residents, demolishing buildings and planning for new ones.
"We've never done anything like this before," Willey said. Utah Non-Profit has been around for 36 years and now houses about 2,000 families in 1,400 units.
First dibs on the Harvey Street units will go to former residents, provided they pass criminal and credit checks.
"There were some good people on Harvey Street," Morris said. "And we'd love to have them back."
E-MAIL: sspeckman@desnews.com