Here’s how Charlotte’s Renaissance West project has evolved

A timeline of the Renaissance West project:

• Boulevard Homes public housing opens on West Boulevard, just east of Charlotte’s airport.

• Charlotte Housing Authority (now Inlivian) identifies Boulevard Homes as its most dilapidated and troubled property.

• Citing conditions that are beyond repair and dragging down the neighborhood, the Housing Authority applies for a grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to tear down Boulevard Homes and replace it with mixed income housing and a cradle-to-career support system.
• HUD approves demolition of Boulevard Homes. Residents are given the option to move to other public housing or to receive Section 8 vouchers for subsidized rentals elsewhere.
• The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board votes to build a new K-8 school on West Boulevard to be part of the Boulevard Homes replacement project.

• HUD awards the Housing Authority a $20.9 million Hope VI grant for a project that includes mixed-income housing and an education village.

• Construction begins on Renaissance West housing for senior citizens.
• The Housing Authority creates an advisory board to discuss the education aspects of the plan.

Ann Doss Helms

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WFAE

• Renaissance West Community Initiative is incorporated and hires Laura Yates Clark as CEO.
• Renaissance West Community Initiative becomes part of the Atlanta-based Purpose Built Communities network.
• Residents begin moving into senior housing.
• Construction begins on mixed-income housing for families.
• Voters approve a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools bond package that includes $30 million for a school at Renaissance West.

• Residents begin moving into mixed-income housing.

• Mixed-income housing is completed.
• William “Mack” McDonald is hired as Renaissance West Community Initiative’s second CEO.

Ann Doss Helms

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WFAE

•  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools opens Renaissance West STEAM Academy, a preK-8 school.
• United Way of Greater Charlotte, now headed by Laura Yates Clark, launches a United Neighborhoods program that will provide long-term funding and support to Renaissance West and other neighborhood-based revitalization projects.

• Howard Levine Child Development Center opens at Renaissance West.
• Renaissance West STEAM Academy gets its first school performance grade. Based on student test scores it’s rated F and put on the state’s low-performing list.

• Renaissance West STEAM Academy is again rated F and low performing.

• COVID-19 pandemic forces schools into remote learning; North Carolina suspends testing and school performance grades.
• Howard Levine Child Development Center closes temporarily.

• Child Development Center reopens under new management.
• In-person classes and state testing resume but the state issues no performance grades.

• North Carolina resumes performance grades. Renaissance West gets an F based on low proficiency but is removed from the low-performing list because of significant growth.

• CMS unveils plans to turn Renaissance West STEAM Academy into a middle school and relocate the preK-5 students at an unspecified date.