The city government razed a lot of public housing units when it began redeveloping North Old Town in 2009. Now its having trouble finding affordable property to replace some of them.
    
By law, the government must replace each public housing unit demolished elsewhere in the city; its called scattering. Sixteen units are still up in the air, and on Tuesday the city council debated where they should land.
    
We have spent two years looking for multi-family homes that went unsuccessful, said Mildrilyn Davis, director of the Office of Housing.
    
Diversifying North Old Town economically and culturally is a major goal of the North Old Town redevelopment, so replacing the units in the same neighborhood would be counteractive, officials indicated. The city council stopped short of mandating a minimum distance from the neighborhood, but market forces are pushing the search to the citys West End and into smaller, less expensive condominiums.
    
Youre going to have to go where the markets going to take you, and thats the west side of the city, Vice Mayor Kerry Donley told Roy Priest, director of ARHA.