By Blake Deshazo

The Selma Times-Journal

The city of Selma could soon see upgrades to some of its public housing complexes.

The United States Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which helps communities improve the quality of housing and life, spent the day Thursday in the city of Selma touring the housing projects, schools and other areas throughout the Queen City.

“We looked at the projects area of GWC (George Washington Carver Homes). We looked at Valley Creek Apartments,” said Mayor George Evans. “We looked at houses in Selma that are boarded up in neighborhoods that need to be either demolished or repaired. We looked at a lot of things like that. They had a complete tour of our city.”

Representatives from HUD shared their vision for Selma during a Selma City Council work session Thursday.

HUD Regional Administrator Ed Jennings Jr. said HUD representatives were taking notes on what updates can be made in Selma as they toured the city.

“They’ve heard a lot about Selma and seen it on TV, but they’ve not actually had to opportunity to walk the grounds of Selma,” Evans said.

“This is an opportunity for us to capitalize on that and do something that will improve our city.”

In two weeks HUD will be back in Selma, as Julian Castro, HUD Secretary, will be in town for the Jubilee.

“Since I’ve been mayor, this is the first time I’ve had that opportunity to talk with [HUD], especially at the highest level,” Evans said. “And then to have the man that’s over it all come to Selma, Mr. Julian Castro. From that point, it can’t be anything but happiness that these people came.”

During his trip to Selma, Castro will also tour the city.

“He’ll have an opportunity to tour our city too when he gets here, so that he can see the conditions and the things that need to be improved upon and funding that is important for our city to continue to grow and progress,” Evans said.

Earlier this month, the department awarded nearly $1.8 billion to public housing authorities throughout the United States. Alabama received a little more than $54 million of those funds.

That funding will allow cities to make major improvements to their public housing units.

“I’m happy they came to look at the condition of Selma when it comes to housing and when it comes to just a lot of other things such as quality of life,” Evans said. “It couldn’t have come at a better time.”