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Plans are underway to renovate the old Houma Elementary School building, vacant since the Seventies, and turn it into an affordable housing apartment complex.
The Terrebonne Parish Council has entered into a lease agreement with the Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corporation, the same group that is building the Bayou Cane Apartments in Houma.
The development will total 88,000 square feet and offer 103 one-bedroom apartments. Fifty of the units will be new construction.
The RNDC is a collaboration between the Volunteers of America National Services and local branches of Volunteers of America to create affordable housing projects throughout Louisiana.
The RNDC unveiled to the Terrebonne Parish Council preliminary plans to add another building to the complex located at 711 Grinage St. and 301 Academy St. in downtown Houma. Plans also include the rehabilitation of the current two buildings, maintaining the aesthetics of the 1930s construction.
“This is a concept that has been done in a number of markets around the country where they’ve taken these historic schools and converted them to some kind of housing,” Victor Smeltz, director of the RNDC, said.
The complex’s tenants are unknown, but Darrel Waire, Terrebonne’s director of Housing and Human Services, said local elderly residents are most in need of affordable housing.
“We have a demand for all groups, but one population that is on a fixed income and has limited opportunities [is]…the elderly,” he said.
The site’s close proximity to Terrebonne General Medical Center, the Houma Police Department and a grocery store would be advantageous to elderly residents, Waire said.
“We haven’t settled yet on whether it will be an all-ages population or restricted to seniors,” Smeltz said.
The Terrebonne Council of Aging has provided the RNDC with reports outlining the need for affordable housing for seniors who receive rental subsidies, but Smeltz said market research indicates there is a need for affordable housing for both seniors and working-age people.
“We are very hopeful that it will be 100 percent elderly housing and it appears to be headed in that direction at the present time,” Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said.
The main school building was built in 1931 and the façade features intricate brickwork and art-deco accents. The second school building in the early 1950s and housed the cafeteria.
There was another building built in the early 1900s that has been demolished. Parish Councilman Danny Babin said it served as Terrebonne High School at one point. Babin said he attended old Houma Elementary.
The RNDC plans to build a new third building. It will be a three-story that actually matches the other two buildings in height, with each floor having 9-foot ceilings, said Vanessa Levine, development manager for the RNDC.
“Architecturally, it matches that way and it keeps the costs reasonable,” Levine said. “…But it won’t be a historic replica. It’ll definitely look like a building built in this time period.”
Babin said, “Initially, they didn’t look alike.”
Levine also said that the buildings will have elevators to accommodate elderly residents. The renovation will also attempt to save as much of the original flooring as possible in the two original buildings.
There will also be playgrounds for children to play in the green space.
The one-bedroom apartments will be rented at controlled and market-rate prices. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines low-income single persons as those earning less than 70 percent of the area median income. Adjustments are made when you add a family.
According to HUD, the AMI for the Houma-Thibodaux region was $56,000 in 2014.
Fifty-seven of the 103 units to be built at the old school will be offered to people earning less than 60 percent of the AMI at no more than $160 in monthly rent.
Five apartments will be offered to people earning less than 20 percent of the AMI at $160.
The rest, 41 units, will go for market rate between $750 and $800.
The RNDC is applying for financing, urban housing and historic tax credits. The architect and historic consultant are finalizing the conceptual designs at present, Levine said.
The plan is to break ground in January 2016 and open in February 2017.
The RNDC is also applying to the National Park Service to have the school listed on the historical registry, Levine said.
“There are people out there …that are hardworking people that need nice, affordable living,” said John Navy, District 1 parish councilman, which includes Downtown. “This is it.”
Former Houma Elementary School site at 711 Grinage St. is destined to become mixed-income housing.
