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Patsy Fakier is a downtown Houma lifer, and she has no plans to change that part of her story.
“I was born downtown. I was raised downtown. I’ve lived all my life downtown, and I hope to die downtown,” she said.
Fakier lives in a house on High Street, which runs right through the middle of a cemetery. When the 82-year-old saw that the old Houma Elementary lot, just a few blocks from her home, was up for sale, she was excited for the possibilities. However, Fakier’s excitement turned to confusion as news about the building’s prospects trickled out.
“What I first found out was that the school board wanted to sell this, and that a local realtor and had told them what it was worth, that the building had no value,” Fakier said. “I read the paper and I said I can’t believe this, because his office is downtown. How does this gorgeous building not have any value?”
The lot eventually did find a buyer, and the building’s future interests Fakier in particular. Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corp., a subsidiary of Volunteers of America, will be turning the property into affordable housing for seniors. RNDC and corporate partners broke ground on the operation last Tuesday.
The Houma School Apartments will have 103 one- and two-bedroom apartments available to residents aged at least 62 years old. RNDC will renovate the main Houma Elementary building, which will hold 47 units, and construct a new, three-story building that will house 56 units. According to RNDC Executive Director Victor Smeltz, the project costs approximately $20 million and is expected to open around April 2017.
Michelle Thomas is the interim executive director of the Louisiana Housing Corp., which provided $750,000 in tax credits to VOA to sell and raise money for the operation. She said VOA won the credits in a competitive process because of how vital these apartments will be to the Houma market.
“Our housing needs assessment showed that more than half of the elderly in Terrebonne Parish live in poverty. This creates an amazing opportunity for 103 seniors to have housing that they can afford. So, we’re really excited that Volunteers of America stepped up and met some of the need in this parish in regard to housing for seniors,” Thomas said.
Former Terrebonne Parish president Michel Claudet, under whose term the project was launched, said a key factor in this development going forward was getting the support of the parish’s Council on Aging on board.
“One critical part that we needed was the Council on Aging’s involvement,” he said.
The TCOA’s board did not approve providing financial support to the Houma School Apartments the first time it came to a vote, however. The apartments were originally going to be mixed-income housing for residents of all ages. According to Ivy Dupre, TCOA board chair, the council could not provide money, as the development went against the council’s mission statement of helping Terrebonne’s elderly. Once the VOA agreed to make the apartments available strictly to seniors, the council agreed to pony up $5.5 million for the apartments.
Dupre said the board was adamant that the VOA develop a community specifically for seniors.
“One of our biggest concerns was that it remain 62 and older. Our senior citizens cannot stand to have a bunch of kids running around all the time. They like their independence, and I know because I’m one of them,” Dupre said.
These apartments will be RNDC’s second development in the Houma area, following the opening of the Bayou Cane Apartments last summer. For those apartments, the RNDC built 82 new units across five buildings. The work on Houma Elementary brings different challenges from RNDC’s last job.
Houma Elementary School is listed on the National Register of Historic Places Database, added on June 15, 2015. According to Smeltz, rehabbing a historic building generally costs more than constructing an entire new building because any renovations have to be historically correct. Smeltz used the myriad windows that line the school building as an example.
“For instance, we have to take a lot of care if we recondition or rebuild those windows. They’ve got to look exactly like they do now, and that’s much more expensive than just buying a new window for the building,” he said.
Besides appeasing historic interests, RNDC must also find ways to bring the aged building up to snuff. The school, built in the 1930s, was last used for classes in 1970. Education officials continued to use it for office space until 2014, when they moved out because of asbestos concerns. Smeltz said his team has found the asbestos and has a plan to ensure the apartments are safe.
“It’s all below in the sub-area, the crawl space. So, everything from the floor up is pretty benign. But we’ve got a mitigation plan to deal with everything underneath so that there won’t be any hazard to any residents once it’s completed,” Smeltz said.
While Houma Elementary will be RNDC’s third historic project, it will be its first school. Smeltz said the school’s setup provides a great opportunity for this development.
“When you look at schools, they lay out really well for housing. There’s a central corridor and classrooms on both sides. Those classrooms actually lay out pretty well for putting apartments in and making use of the windows looking in each direction,” Smeltz said.
Once the apartments are finished, they will be a much-needed boon for Terrebonne’s senior population, according to Dupre. She said the TCOA’s waiting list for low-cost apartments is more than 300 people.
Fakier said she is considering giving up her High Street house, and would love to move to an affordable apartment in the central location she’s used to.
“I have a car, but if I give it up, I can walk to my church. There are banks all along Barrow Street; I can walk to a bank. There’s restaurants downtown,” she said.
Fakier said she’s proud to see public and private entities step up to help the seniors that have supported this community the longest.
“Everybody does everything for young people, and that’s good. But we’ve put into the system, and we need to have things done for us,” Fakier said. •
Terrebonne officials and stakeholders shovel sand at the groundbreaking for the Houma School Apartments in downtown Houma. The project will include a renovation of the Houma Elementary School on Grinage Street.
