NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Shantell Williams feels relieved to return to a community she's known for years.
"Whew," she said. "Patience is a virtue."
Williams is one of 11 former Ridley Place residents who moved into The Lift & Rise over the last month. In the end, 24 total Ridley residents will move to the new housing community. Williams is ready to get back to a sense of community.
"It's a better community," she said. "I'm at home. My kids are happy. The whole family is happy."
Over the last three years, she's waited eagerly for crews to construct new housing for her, former neighbors, and new residents.
"I was stalking the complex," Williams said. "I was coming by ensuring they were working and doing their jobs because I was so eager to move."
"Where we are today at The Lift & Rise is the first phase of off-site housing," said Karen Wilds, the executive director of the Newport News Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
The city received a $30 million Choice Neighborhood Initiative grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of the Marshall-Ridley neighborhood transformation. On Thursday, Newport News city officials celebrated the completion of the building and welcomed residents moving in.
"It's a rebirth," said Tyishua McCoy, the senior project manager for Urban Strategies, Inc. "So, knowing that they have an opportunity to accept change and see change and see it fulfilled and come to fruition, it is absolutely amazing."
McCoy and her team helped Ridley residents transition into housing as they waited for The Lift & Rise to be built.
"We treat our families with support resources with leverage partners, community partners that allow us to provide services for them so that they are able to transition smoothly," she said.
The housing community on Jefferson Avenue will host a mix of affordable and market-rate apartments. It also includes space for 24 families who lived in Ridley Place before crews demolished it two years ago.
City leaders are already working on the next phase of revitalizing the area: redeveloping the former Ridley site.
"We are on schedule for the Ridley site and that's a very large site. It includes not only the housing but some commercial space and an early childhood education center and the presence of the Virginia Peninsula Community College there and a health and wellness trail," Wilds said.
She said that should be finished by the end of 2024. City officials are also working to finance another development downtown as part of the transformation project. Wilds said the city hopes to complete that work by the end of 2025.
A city spokesperson said there are about 450 people on the waiting list. You can find more information about the housing community online.