TFAE honors top students, teachers who inspired them
March 3, 2015Low-lying land a hurdle for apartment developers
March 3, 2015
Despite the long-standing problem of few housing options for low-income earners, Terrebonne Parish has taken relatively big steps towards remedying the dearth in affordable housing, while Lafourche Parish has taken baby steps.
By far, the greatest increase in affordable housing to Terrebonne Parish will be the completion of the Bayou Cane Apartment Complex at 6052 West Main St. in Houma, across the street from Southland Mall, when it is completed this spring. It will add 82 housing units to the market with a mix of both one-and-two-bedroom apartments.
The complex was built with $5.7 million in Community Development Block Grant funding awarded by Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government to the Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corporation, leveraged with additional private investment equity and bank financing.
The Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corporation is a subsidiary of Volunteers of America whose mission is to provide quality rental housing that is affordable to working households in Southeast Louisiana.
At least 32 of those apartments will be rented at market value, according to Donna Betzer, director of marketing for Volunteers of America in New Orleans. The rest will be offered to those who make less than 80 percent of the median income for the area.
According to Betzer, the income limit is $32,700 for a one-person household. The income limit is based on a sliding scale depending on the number of people in a family and the amount of money they make.
“Yes, investors will receive a return on their investment,” Betzer said in an email. “RNDC, as the developer, will receive modest revenue which will be used to further the mission to develop additional workforce housing units.”
The RNDC will be pre-leasing apartments at Bayou Cane this spring and tenants will begin moving in this summer, according to Betzer.
Volunteers of America will maintain a presence at Bayou Cane Apartments offering “employment readiness services” valuable to working individuals who are looking for gainful employment even after the last nail is set.
“We actually will have somebody onsite that will assist at first the residents of the community with soft employment skills like resume writing and interviewing skills,” Betzer said. “And then we’ll expand our services based on our measurement of the need of community, working with the parish government.”
Old Houma Elementary School Development Coming
Plans are also underway to renovate the old Houma Elementary School building, vacant since the ‘70s, and turn it into an affordable housing apartment complex.
The development will total 88,000 square-feet and have 103 one bedroom apartments. Fifty of the units will be new construction.
It has not yet been decided who the housing complex will be offered to, but hopefully it will be offered to elderly residents, who need affordable housing, said Darrel Waire, director of Housing and Human Services for Terrebonne Parish.
OTHER TERREBONNE PROJECTS
According to Waire, the Parkwood Place subdivision with at least 144 lots is underway to completion. The streets are just being finished and when they are finished, at least half of them will be rent-controlled and rented to people who meet the income limit requirements.
Terrebonne Housing & Human Services Department has also completed 15 of 17 projects including renovations of existing homes around town that are offered to low-income earners, Waire said.
Since 2010, the department has also assisted 112 first-time homebuyer families by subsidizing their down payments for their homes, Waire said. The funds used were grants awarded to the department related to Hurricane Gustav and Ike and have nearly been completely exhausted. The department has enough funds to assist “maybe ten more families,” according to Waire.
LAFOURCHE TAKING BABY STEPS
The Housing Authority of Lafourche Parish completed a total of twelve units in December available to low-income families, said Lafourche Parish Housing Authority Executive Director Bethyl Pitre.
The Housing Authority of Lafourche Parish constructed seven single-family, two-bedroom-one-bath energy efficient homes in Raceland, Pitre said. Seven families have been pre-approved for the homes and will be moving in shortly.
Rent for those units is $740 per month, said Pitre.
“There is a need for more affordable housing in the parish,” Pitre said. The Housing Authority of Lafourche is at nearly 100 percent occupancy of its subsidized units and there is no more funding currently for new developments.
“It is something that our board is interested in pursuing in the future but we haven’t gone down that path yet,” Pitre said.
In Thibodaux, the Housing Authority of Lafourche Parish partnered with Lafourche ARC, a non-profit supporting local people who are mentally disabled to build four two-bedroom-two-bathroom apartments and one single-bedroom apartment rented at affordable rates. Pitre says funding is hard to come by because there are many similar organizations that are competing for funds, but they do still maintain their rental assistance program.
The rental assistance program offers vouchers to low-income families to rent from private renters. Pitre said that out of ten vouchers issued by the housing authority, only three actually get leased.
Lafourche Arc will try to place people with special needs in the two bedroom apartments, while setting aside the one bedroom unit for an elderly person. The apartments are located on Westover Drive and are complete, Lafourche Arc Director Lester Adams said.
The Lafourche Parish Housing Authority still technically owns the properties and Lafourche Arc is waiting for them to transfer ownership over to them before they place individuals in them to live, according to Adams.
Lafourche ARC has taken applications for the housing units and they should be filled within a few weeks, said Adams.
“The need for housing for the developmentally disabled is certainly great,” said Adams. “They struggle just like everyone else, particularly since their income is most of the time quite low…This is just a small tip of the iceberg of their needs.”
