Tag:Multi-family
Affordable Housing Task Force
The Affordable Housing Task Force met on Monday the 27th to discuss the information Jonathan Leist, Culver Town Manager, had assembled through various meetings. I attended four of the six meetings he reported on and was able to help fill in background. In a nutshell, there are opportunities and developers that can be enticed to do work.
In a MCEDC site visit with Elkay, we were able to recruit Elkay’s management to assist us in our endeavors. Two Elkay representatives attended the Monday meeting and brought demographics for our use. They also volunteered to help with surveying to determine how many Elkay employees would be interested in relocating to Culver if housing were made available.
In the meeting with IHCDA, we learned that funds are available, but only for income based housing projects, not market based housing. We did find that much of the projected income based rental rates are actually above the local market rate rents.
The Task Force agreed that it would be prudent to pursue both market based and income based housing to keep our options open. The group tasked Jonathan to take a couple of things before the Town Council: 1) A budget for a Needs Assessment Survey and 2) A tentative agreement to consider tax abatement for the properties. (Tax Abatement was requested by all of the developers Jonathan met.) Jonathan accomplished #2 at last night’s Council meeting, but #1 was not approved as it would require an additional appropriation for the unbudgeted cost.
Image Source: www.homeloanstoday.com
Marshall County Entry Level Housing Meeting
I sit on the Affordable Housing Task Force for Culver and as part of that as well as wearing my MCEDC hat, I sat in on a meeting at the Culver Library with Darin Edwards, Underwriting and Closing Manager for IHCDA. The meeting was arranged by Jerry Chavez, MCEDC Executive Director, and included representatives from the Marshall County communities of Culver, Argos, Plymouth and Bremen.
Affordable Housing Update
Culver took a step forward with their Affordable Housing Task Force on Wednesday March 11th. Representatives from the Town Council, Redevelopment Commission, Plan Commission, Public Schools, Culver Academies and MCEDC met at the library to discuss the issues and goals regarding affordable housing. With the exception of two with staff positions, all were volunteers from the community stepping up to try and make things better.
Affordable Housing Conference
On behalf of the Town of Culver, I attended the Affordable Housing Finance Summit in Chicago last month. It was a three day event, running from Wednesday morning through Friday afternoon. It consisted of a lot of interactive presentations as well as networking opportunities. I have some experience dealing with HUD due to our Garden Court projects, but this was like taking a 200 level course when I really needed 101. I do feel like I learned a lot, while it was painfully obvious that I have a lot more to learn.
The dream of “Affordable Housing”
Affordable Housing has long been a topic in Culver. The issue has been further focused due to the completion of the Comprehensive Plan where affordable housing was addressed. The recent tax abatement granted to Elkay where they pledged to add 100 new employees also makes housing a local priority. This has also been a topic at several of the MCEDC Development for the Future meetings as other communities in Marshall County are recognizing the same need. Overall, MCEDC is aware of current expansions that are projected to add 500-600 new jobs in the next 12-18 months. Ginny Munroe, Culver Town Council President, asked me to be on a Task Force to address this issue for Culver. When the advertisement for the Summit came up, I volunteered to attend on the Town’s behalf.
Shipping Container Living Space
Credit: Urban Space Management (CONTAINER CITY) Ltd.
Brent Martin and I have had several discussions about using shipping containers as living space. Apparently someone beat us on the implementation. London-based developers Urban Space Management used shipping containers to create Container City, a 22-unit modular building. I read about it in the April issue of Multi-Family Executive. You can read the entire article by Linsey Isaacs on their site here. I also read an article recently where Ball State University was experimenting with the idea as housing in third world countries. Another million dollar idea lost to quicker minds…
