<P> Although still an important industrial city, Hopewell has struggled with transitions through loss of jobs due to plant closures, changes in residential housing patterns, and the costs of environmental clean - up . Much of its middle class population moved to neighboring Prince George and Chesterfield Counties for newer housing during the suburban expansion of the 1960s and 1970s . The city's housing stock is dominated by relatively small homes with a significant percentage being offered as rental properties . Of these, many were hastily constructed over a century ago by DuPont to house plant workers during the First World War . </P> <P> Hopewell has encouraged re-development along its waterfront areas along the James and Appomattox Rivers, in the downtown area, and the City Point Historic District, as well as the sites of several long vacant industrial plants . Due to its hasty construction as a mill town during the First World War, Hopewell had a large number of kit homes that were hauled in and erected in neighborhoods laid out by DuPont known as "A Village" and "B Village". The city has a surviving group of Sears Catalog Homes, with several available for exterior viewing on a self - guided tour . The city also has numerous Aladdin Kit Homes; at one time, it may have had the most such homes in the nation . Because residents moved to newer houses and the Aladdin Homes were abandoned and deteriorated, many have been razed . </P> <P> Since 1994, Hopewell has been twinned with Ashford, Kent, U.K . </P> <P> In late 2012, press reports indicated the city had the highest rate of violent crime on a per capita basis in the state . </P>

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