NEWPORT NEWS— The city will receive $656,600 in federal dollars as part of a 2008 appropriation bill to start buying land and raze blighted homes at Jefferson Park in southeast Newport News, a neighborhood known for rows of dilapidated boarding homes and abandoned lots.

Sprucing up the area — about 18 acres between 39th and 50th streets, bordered by the CSX railroad tracks to the west and Madison Avenue to the east — has long been a part of the city's plan to revitalize both the southeast community and its two-mile waterfront.

"We cannot do anything with the waterfront until we get the gateway into the waterfront area cleaned up," said Councilman Joe Whitaker, who also wants to make sure public access to the water will be part in the city's development plans, which call for a mix of condominiums, town houses, single-family homes and businesses in the area.

News about the federal money comes after former NFL quarterback Aaron Brooks' announced last week that he plans to invest millions of dollars in the proposed Southeast Commerce Center, a 14-acre tract along Terminal Avenue. Brooks grew up in public housing in the southeast community.

The city also hired a consultant late last year to study lower Jefferson Avenue between 25th and 36th streets. The study will look into how to best improve the streetscape and create guidelines for future developments at the corridor, which is also dotted with vacant lots, said Al Riutort, the city's planning director.

The city set aside $54,000 for the study. The consultant, who also did the southeast community's waterfront study, is expected to unveil some of his recommendations for the corridor in June.

The city's Redevelopment and Housing Authority will use the $656,600 to start buying properties on 40th and 41st streets within the next year or so, said Karen Wilds, the authority's executive director. "We will be looking at what the needs are in the neighborhood overall," Wilds said.

The authority will also begin a housing survey to gauge what types of homes residents will endorse.

Construction of new single-family homes and rental town houses, similar to the homes at nearby Madison Heights, is estimated to start in 2010 or 2011, and will be financed using tax credits for rental housing and low-interest loans from the state and private sources, Wilds said.

The architecture department at Hampton University will help the city with design issues and the survey.

"It's an important neighborhood in the community and it's a gateway to the southeast community," Wilds said. "It's important that we curb the blight in the neighborhood before it gets out of control."

Over the years, Jefferson Park has lagged behind the rest of the city economically, accounting for a high number of single-parent households, aging homes, isolated businesses and what the city calls "an undereducated, economically isolated population," according to the city's revitalization program for Jefferson Park.

In recent years the area became home to rows of crime-infested boarding houses along 40th and 41st streets between Jefferson and Madison avenues.

"I've lived here for 48 years and it's always been like this," said Whitaker, a Jefferson Park resident. "And I am so happy about the money. We have to have decent housing so that people are not afraid to come down here and shop and do all these things they do everywhere else."

The history of Jefferson Park

• Jefferson Park was founded by former residents of Mulberry Island, which was purchased by the federal government in 1918 for a military installation better known today as Fort Eustis.

Jefferson Park today:

• Home of 22,983 residents.

• Median Income is $19,235, compared to $42,520 citywide.

• Unemployment is 8.1 percent, compared to 5 percent citywide.

• More than 14 percent of adults in Jefferson Park do not have a high school diploma, compared to 4.2 percent citywide.

Source: Newport News Redevelopment and Housing Authority