Wisconsin State Journal
Alexis London
At Madison's renewed Bayview complex, the end ...

Jacob Washington's brand-new townhouse at Bayview is unlike anywhere else he has lived.

Washington, his wife and their three young children shared a single room at a family shelter before the townhouse became available at the Downtown low-income housing complex this fall. Now they have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and far more space to themselves.

"Coming from a shelter, locked up in that room, my kids are joyous," Washington said. "The poverty forced my kids to age," he said. At Bayview, they’re free to be kids again.

But what stands out most to Washington isn't Bayview's facilities. What really feels different, he said, is the community.

"People want to be involved here," Washington said. "It's not some type of place where people are trying to get rent from you and don't care about you. They build and work every day for the kids’ sake. They really do. And that’s amazing to me because, literally, I never had this in my life."

At Madison's renewed Bayview complex, the end of construction marks another beginning
Wisconsin State Journal
Alexis London
New Bayview community center takes novel ...

The community center at the heart of the Bayview affordable housing redevelopment on “the Triangle” Downtown has opened its doors to the public.

Bright and airy, with big windows and a beachy blue-and-tan color scheme, the $9 million, 11,500-square-foot center was created by and for the people who live there as part of the second phase of the Bayview Foundation’s $60 million affordable housing redevelopment. The foundation is now turning to the third and final phase of the project, which will add a playground, more green space and the last 44 of the development’s 130 total housing units. The expansion is aimed at low-income families who do not currently live at Bayview and is scheduled for completion in February.

Isthmus

Portrait of a neighborhood

Portrait of a neighborhood

Angie Powell was raised by adoptive parents on Madison’s west side. As an adult, she lived on Williamson Street. But no place has felt quite like Bayview Townhouses, where she moved with her son in 2010.

“The west side is not culturally diverse like Bayview or the east side. I was one of the few African Americans living there. I was really happy at 18 to get out of the neighborhood. I still feel like I don’t belong there when I visit my parents,” Powell relates in a new book about Bayview, which broke ground in August on a $50 million redevelopment.