When Shirley Owen and the Mooncrest Neighborhood Association launched a rehabilitation effort in the World War II era community, the idea was not to take on all 104 buildings.

The idea was to plant a seed. If they showed what could be done with the buildings, raised the values and increased the homeowner to renter ratio, perhaps other owners would follow suit.

Mrs. Owen lived long enough to see the first two buildings gutted, but not long enough to see them rebuilt; she died Oct. 13.

Part of her vision came true this spring, however, when five renovated units went up for sale as townhouses. The other part may come true soon, though perhaps not in exactly the way she intended.

Mrs. Owen intended to use proceeds from the first sales to buy and renovate more property. It would be a slow process, she knew, and would be scattered, with purchases based more on favorable pricing than on strategic location. With the neighborhood association's limited funding, though, it was the best she could do -- and she hoped that it would spur other owners into action, filling in the gaps.

Instead, her efforts -- and in some ways, her death -- have spurred Moon and Allegheny County into action.

Moon Manager Greg Smith said he met with Allegheny County Economic Development director Dennis Davin a couple of weeks ago, and that the two government entities are working out a plan to pick up and expand Mrs. Owen's project.

"The county is committed to helping us," he said. "We're more or less getting a game plan put together."

"We think it's extremely important to do," Mr. Davin said. "We don't want anything to languish."

The county and township -- which were both heavily involved with the neighborhood association's efforts -- have not yet set dollar figures or a time frame, but Mr. Smith and Mr. Davin both see the effort as critical.

Built as war-worker housing in the 1940s and sold piecemeal to private investors, Mooncrest apartments are among the most affordable private rentals in the county. That, unfortunately, has made it sort of a last resort for those kicked out of public housing for misbehaving, and there's been a rising level of criminal activity there over the past decade or so.

Mr. Smith said a disproportionate amount of Moon's police budget goes to Mooncrest, and it puts a large bite on other programs as well. "It's sort of like a wound," Mr. Smith said. "We're bleeding there, and it's to everyone's advantage to get that wound to heal."

That does not, however, mean that he wants to see current residents priced out of their homes. "It's workforce housing," he said, "and we need that."

In fact, Mr. Smith said he'd like to see future renovations done with lower price goals; he wants to see units selling for a bit less than the ones that are now for sale. They are listed from $62,500 to $92,500.

If they sell, though, he hopes that the rise in home ownership will bring with it a sense of pride and community -- and as that grows, it will lead to the private efforts Mrs. Owen envisioned.

Mr. Davin pointed to Crawford Square and the South Side as examples. "There were initially a lot of subsidies," he said. "But as we go along, there are less and less."

Another initiative that was successful in those neighborhoods, he said, was renovating groups of buildings at once, creating clusters of stability that have a greater impact than individual buildings do.

Mr. Davin said his department is working with Action Housing, which was part of the original project, to target areas for improvement.

If they do it right, he said, It's like putting sand inside an oyster to get a pearl.

"These are things that can't be done privately because the costs are so great," he said.

Mr. Smith also said that bids have gone out for surveillance cameras to monitor the neighborhood. The township got a grant for the cameras earlier this year. Police hope the cameras will help them weed out the neighborhood's problems.