Wednesday, August 20.1975
University Daily Kansan
11
Local subsidized housing
From page 10
THE MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE income for a family of four at the time of admittance is $7,200 and the maximum for continued occupancy is $9,000.
Doris Kaiser, executive director of the LHA, said each tenant paid 25 per cent of his adjusted gross income for rent, although no one paid rent which was more than 20 per cent of the fair market rate. The fair market rate for a four-bedroom unit at Edwardo is $140.
Tenants are divided into four groups according to the amount of rent they pay, Kaiser said. The LHA balances admittances between those in the lower rent groups and
"performance payment." Kaiser said a project wouldn't qualify for this payment if it hadn't been able to pay normal expenses that year.
THE PROJECT HAS a community building and a Tenant Association, although organized activity is low, Kaiser said. She also said the Tenant Association was "practically nil."
"We've tried to elect officers for the last three months," she said, "but there have not been any."
Kaiser said that in terms of social interaction, the project was like an average neighborhood, although the occupants were more diversified. She said 30 units were
Pine Tree . . . a success
those in the higher rent groups so that they can afford to pay for more employment expenses.
Kaiser said the range of tenants' incomes in July was $1,000 a year to $1,000 a year. Although the maximum income for continued occupancy is $11,000 a year for a house and $9,000 a year for an income is about $17,000 is being allowed stay because it is looking for a house to buy.
**TENANTS' INCOMES** are examined every year to make sure they are still below the maximum for continued occupancy. This maximum is about 25 per cent more expensive than the average family can improve its standard of living before it has to move out of the project.
Kaiser said one advantage of this system was that some families were able to save enough money to buy a home by living in the project for several years.
Kaiser said the project had to pay all its operational costs with money collected as rent. If, however, the authority overspend its budget because of unfresher expenses, it will be required to reimburse rates, the project will qualify for reimbursement from HUD in the form of a
occupied by elderly persons or couples and
25 by families in which at least one parent
BABCOCK PLACE, a $2,675,650 project for the elderly, was completed and occupied in the fall of 1973. The seven-story building, at 1700 Massachusetts St., has 120 units for single persons and couples and a variety of community facilities including meeting rooms, offices, and a clinic. Guidelines for housing include two private apartments low income ($2,500 for one person and $6,000 for a couple), a handicap and displacement from previous housing.
directors for the project until construction was completed.
THE GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZES this project by making monthly payments to Fanny Mae for most of the interest. During the construction period, the foundation made monthly payments on the principal of the loan and one per cent of the interest. The payment paid the rest of the interest, which is paid back each month, according to HUD under writer Phill Lord.
The mortgage and operational expenses at bachelor are finance as they are at Edison.
The Pine Tree Townhouses were built under provisions of the 328 program, as was Hope Plaza. But, unlike Hope Plaza, the Pine Tree project was planned for families who have no new owned cooperatively and has never received a subsidy for operation expenses.
The project was initiated by the Foundation for Cooperative Housing, a private nonprofit organization based in Southfield, Mich. The foundation acted as a board of
Pine Tree was originally planned as a five-stage project, but construction was stopped after the third stage. The first stage was opened for occupancy in October 1970; the third was opened in August of 1973. In August 1974, the project was sold to its owner, Ralph Barker, who elected a board of directors to take over the management and腕袋s to Fanny Mane.
The project has 160 one, two, and three-bedroom units. Only family groups are required.
If a resident's income is within the designated limits, his monthly share of the investment is $4,200. The market rental rate. A family of three whose income is less than $10,500 a year would pay a monthly sum of $105 for a two-bedroom townhouse in the most recently completed
IF A FAMILY'S INCOME is more than the maximum, it pays either 25 per cent of its adjusted monthly income or the market rental rate for the unit it occupies. The market rental rate for a two-bedroom townhouse in the newest section of Pine Tree $1100.
When a family moves into the cooperative, it buys a unit from the previous occupant. The price for all units was $285. Each apartment is set up with six units increases by a set amount each month. The increase is $6.25 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, which would cost $338.
Diane O'Neal, resident manager of Pine Tree, said about 75 per cent of the units were occupied by students. She said the cooperative had a waiting list of 37 names.
Unlike Hope Plaza, the three newer complexes are making enos meet and still providing housing for Lawrence residents who might otherwise be living in what the first director of Hope called "chicken coops."
--practical problems such as housing, said she thought the absence of a complete housing information center in Lawrence live on a low budget even more difficult.
Former Hope Plaza Corporation President Turner said she thought the projects had improved housing conditions in the city. The house was still a need for low-income housing.
"THEE ARE STILL families living in shacks and not adequately provided for!" they say. "If they can afford only by doing without something else—which means they can never get ahead. Whenever any emergency occurs, they can't possibly get out of the circles."
Former Ballard Center Co-director Finkind, who now counsels students on
Arthur Katz, professor of social welfare, said he thought more projects like Edgeworth should be built. He said he liked the plan because it required that families of different income levels live together, and so avoided the creation of a low-income ghetto.
BILL BARR, DIRECTOR of the Space Technology Center and former chairman of the Lawrence Housing Authority, said he the law enforcement had enough low-cost housing units.
"We should realize we are mortgaging somebody's future," he said.
He said he thought if more units were built, the older houses in town would be bought and the homes turned into rooming houses, allowed to deterate and eventually torn down.
"You've got to think of the whole system," he said. "I think we're in good shape with 250 units for those who most need them."
The combined capacity of the two public
housing projects, Edgewood and Babcock,
is 250 units.
PHIL LORID OF THE Topeka HUD office said funding for new projects under both the 1837 Housing Act and the 1988 National Park Service law. President Nixon and was never appropriated again by Congress. Without this appropriation, neither Lawrence nor any other American city will see construction of a public housing or FHA-insured projects.
Both HUD officials and local persons involved in providing low-rent housing expect the next project in Lawrence to be a residential apartment building. Section 8 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, provides Housing Assistance Payments to persons whose income and rent are low enough to qualify for low-rent housing. A higher number in low-rent houses or in regular homes.
A project designated for Section 8 funds would be built and operated by a private government and would receive a regular government contribution difference between the fair market rate for each unit and the 25 per cent each tenant would pay of his income. This type of
subsby is more like the funding behind Hope Plaza than like the others.
The three surviving projects are responsible for maintaining themselves as workable business enterprises, whereas Hope Plaza and new Section 8 projects can depend on HUD to provide the revenue they need but can't bring in for themselves.
TOPEKA HUD OFFICIALS said this program would be advertised in the Lawrence area by the end of September. If a successful project is built, it would shorten the waiting lists of the three projects already operating in Lawrence.
Representatives of Babcock, Edgewood and Pine Tree have said a high rate of occupancy was necessary to the survival of their projects.
Diane O'Neal, resident manager of Pine Tree, said that construction of a fourth floor might endanger this high rate of occupancy and thus the financial stability of Pine Tree.
Doris Kaiser said she and the housing authority board of directors had agreed that a new project was needed for the elderly in Lawrence and that if one was built, occupancy in Babcock Place would not be threatened.
Still one of the world's great bargains. '75 Corolla.
One of the lowest prices in America. '75 Corolla.
★Winner of the 1974 Customer Relations Award.
QUALIFIED SERVICE ON MOST IMPORTS.
Lawrence Auto Plaza
OYOTA
Ph.842-2191