May 30, 2002 – Affordable housing moved a giant step closer to reality Wednesday night as the Senate Housing Parks and Recreation Committee voted unanimously to approve a long-awaited three-year plan for new rental and lease-purchase developments in the St. Thoms-St. John district.
The senators listened attentively as Al Simmonds, Housing Authority acting director, described construction of a mixed-income community in the Estate Hoffman/Nullyberg area south of Weymouth Rhymer Highway. The proposed development calls for construction of 176 units and a community center. It would comprise 109 multi-family and 67 single-family units, which would have from one to four bedrooms.
Simmonds called the project "the first major development of this magnitude in more than 30 years." He said, "VIHA has demonstrated its support for the project as part of the three-year plan, as well as its consideration of Low Income Housing Tax Credits to support the project."
The credits can be taken only for rentals, Simmonds explained. All of the units initially will be rented, but there will be a lease-purchase program for the 67 single-family units.
He said construction is scheduled to begin in July, with completion set for June 2004.
Territorywide 1,000 units are planned. The St. Croix plans will be reviewed and put to a vote at a 6 p. m.committee meeting Friday on St. Croix.
Simmonds said the project is estimated to cost $35 million. The financing, he said, includes the balance of a federal Housing and Urban Development grant earmarked for the replacement of the Warren E. Brown units, which were demolished after Hurricane Marilyn destroyed the development in 1995. He said the project represents the final phase of replacing the Warren E. Brown units.
The committee chair, Sen. Celestino A. White Sr., was anxious that the former residents of the Donoe housing project, which was demolished last year, be afforded an opportunity to apply for the new housing. Ira Hobson, Housing Parks and Recreation commissioner, said applications will be accepted beginning next week. White urged the public to contact the Housing Finance Authority immediately to apply.
In response to a question from White, Simmonds said the Hoffman/Nullyberg development will not be limited to the displaced residents of the Donoe and Warren E. Brown housing communities.
Hobson said he was very pleased with the project, which his department has worked to make as affordable as possible. "It is my interest in making sure people in the V.I. get homes," he said.
Simmonds said approval of the project would send a "convincing endorsement to investors about the commitment of this territory to affordable housing … and demonstrate confidence in our housing institutions."
Senators' eyes opened wide as the 99-unit Lovenlund development near Magens Bay Road on St. Thomas's North Side was described. It is to be built by Reliance Housing Foundation Inc., with ground breaking set for June 2003 and completion planned for December 2003.
Robert O. Jackson, Reliance president, said the development will consist of 10 three-story garden-style apartment buildings, a leasing office, a community building and a maintenance shop. He said the project will cost $19.9 million, about three-quarters of it funded through federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits. This, he said, will allow rentals of two-bedroom units as low as $652 a month; three-bedrooms at $749; and four-bedrooms at $814. VIHA allotted the credits to the project.
The Lovenlund project also includes a home-ownership incentive program, wherein 5 percent of each month's rent is set aside to go toward a purchase down payment.
Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen told Jackson she would like to see a similar development on St. Croix, which he said was a "possibility we are looking into."
VIHA also has plans for an ambitious Fortuna subdivision on St. Thomas's West End with 181 single-family units, and a Nadir home ownership development.
Aside from the tax credits and the Warren E. Brown replacement funds, it was not clear how all of the projects would be financed.. Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole, saying the construction was unprecedented, assured housing officials that more funds would be made available.
"Construction and capital projects are how you fuel an economy," he said, adding, "St. Croix has a lot of problems and it needs one of these housing developments. It needs that injection."
The committee unanimously approved developments planned for HoffmanNullyberg, Lovenlund, Fortuna, Nadir, Altona and Ross Taarneberg.
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