The vacant Nesbitt Court on Carolina Beach Road recently received funds from the American Recovery and Investment Act for possible demolition, according to Wilmington Housing Authority officials. The former government housing community received $3.06 million with $1.4 million going towards demolition and $850,000 set aside for new structures. Other funds are for hiring an outside commercial realty agent to sell the property. The two options are not contradictions, as the Authority is “pursuing parallel tracks,” according to Authority Chief Operating Officer Adrian Early.

“Right now our board has told us to weigh the options,” Early said.

The funds from the American Recovery and Investment Act must be spent within three years and also includes improvements to Hillcrest and Houston Moore. Also, $300,000 from the grant is for public housing consultants to advise the Authority how to plan best for growth.

“The whole idea is to make sure if we grow, we grow strategically and responsibly,” Early said.

Growth is a priority for Early and Wilmington Housing Authority CEO Michael J. Krause. Both are recent entrants into their Wilmington Housing Authority positions after the dismissal of Benjamin Quattlebaum and other top employees in the fall of 2007. The recent changes at the top reflect continued changes at the properties.

Robert S. Jervay Homes was converted about 10 years ago to a mixture of rental units and new homes. Taylor Homes underwent a similar transition to occupied homes and senior living. Jervay utilizes a private market real estate broker to offer new homes to residents with an income no more than 115 percent of the median area income, which is about $62,000. That value can change depending on family size. Financing and other homebuyer assistance programs are available from a variety of sources, including the city of Wilmington.

Jervay features newly constructed homes, a fact that sometimes surprises homebuyers and real estate agents. Glenda Tate, an agent with Century 21 Sweyer and Associates, recently took a group of agents to the properties to show off her two and three bedroom options. Tate said she mostly looks to first-time homebuyers for the properties that range in size from 1,200 to 1,400 square feet. There are 54 lots available for homeownership with 33 homes constructed at Jervay Place.

“Part of the challenge is that we’re in an area that is transitioning, and it’s getting people to see the homes, and giving the people the confidence that it’s a good home,” Tate said. “This is beautiful, and sometimes we forget how excited people can be in having a home like this.”

With improvements at Taylor and Jervay and the closing of Nesbitt Court, some residents had to find other options. Taylor once had 276 units and now has 144. Jervay had 250 rental units and now has 100 rental units spread out over four different locations. The vacant Nesbitt Court had 261 rental units. No one doubts that the quality of conditions has greatly improved at Jervay and Taylor, but available units have been lost with no immediate replacement.

“My question is, where are they going?” asked New Hanover County Commissioner and realtor Jonathan Barfield at a recent meeting of the Affordable Housing Coalition of Southeastern North Carolina.

The old incarnations of Taylor, Jervay and Nesbitt were not necessarily filled to capacity. “You can have a very high vacancy rate at a property. That may trigger a demolition process,” Early said. “Nesbitt Court was certainly not at a 100 percent occupancy.”

There is usually a turnover rate of 20 to 33 percent at the rental properties, and that those living in Nesbitt were transferred to other properties or given Section 8 vouchers. But everyone went somewhere when it closed.

“We are not allowed to close it and say you are on the street,” Early said.

But others have looked to the Housing Authority for a place to live since that time. Four hundred families are on the waiting list for rental units and close to 1,700 for Section 8 vouchers, according to Early and Krause.

“All of those people were forced to move, and now you have a waiting list. The housing authority has been depleting their supply,” Barfield said in a separate interview. “Where do those people go? Some are with family members, some are doubling up, some are in substandard housing. You would be surprised at some of the places people are living at in this community.”

Krause, who just came on board at the Housing Authority last September, said the waiting list for Section 8 has been tempered.

“When I first started here [there were] over 4,000 people on waiting list,” Krause said, with $150,000 of vouchers per month over budget. “I had to make a lot of changes with the admin of the voucher program. We closed the waiting list and stopped issuing vouchers.”

But beyond the Housing Authority or subsidized rental programs like Section 8, is there an affordable housing crisis in the Wilmington area?

The AMEZ Housing Community Development Corporation (formerly the Wilmington AME Zion Housing Development Corporation) is on Nixon Road near the Taylor Homes. The nonprofit’s main duty is to provide housing counseling and pre-qualify potential homebuyers for loans, but their job has taken a sharp turn as of late towards foreclosure management and counseling. Though the rise in foreclosures has the potential to further overwhelm the rental market and other agencies like the Housing Authority, AMEZ is trying its best to keep people in their homes.

“There are not enough organizations to take on the task, it has consumed our agency,” said executive director Linda C. Smith.

Housing counselors are seeing five or six clients per day about foreclosure prevention or management, and are spending several more hours on the phone with mortgage lenders trying to negotiate new terms for clients who may have only missed one payment.

But AMEZ is also on the lookout for properties to build new homes and  offer down payment assistance on the properties. The problem is, there are few places to build the homes.

“It’s the lack of affordable land,” Smith said. Due to grant restrictions, her agency is limited to building in the city, though they can offer assistance to other developments like Lena Springs in Navassa. “We are seeing people pay 50 (percent of their income) or more towards housing. Sometimes rent is even worse.”

According to data from the North Carolina Housing Coalition and the National Low Income Housing Coalition, thirty percent of income should be going to housing. Most renters in Wilmington need close to 50 percent of their income to reach a $720 monthly payment.

When asked what local realtors or builders can do to help, Smith ticked off a list that included land donation, volunteering or financial contributions.

“If we can get the land, maybe we can do a building blitz,” she said.

Krause agrees that public and private sectors have to work together to solve affordable housing in the area. “There are certainly opportunities for public/private partnerships. Bonds for public entities to spur affordable housing opportunities,” Krause said. “We only have jurisdiction for the public housing in Wilmington.”

According to Barfield, the county is looking at additional financing options to encourage affordable housing development outside city limits and Krause hints that more city/county cooperation may be needed.

Krause said that as the city increases its quality of housing, they may look to expand into the county.

"As you have a community with an ever growing affordable housing need, it's up to us to see how to meet those needs," Krause said.

It certainly is a city problem, a county problem and even a regional issue. Comments at the Affordable Housing Coalition meeting discussed how public service workers in New Hanover County and Wilmington such as policemen or teachers are purchasing outside the county. And as the population of Wilmington and the surrounding area continues an upward course, that will put more strain on the region’s infrastructure.

"If all of your affordable housing is in Leland or Pender County, that creates a different question about infrastructure. With that we really need to look at how to create pockets of affordable housing,” Tate said.

source: http://www.wilmingtonbiz.com
author: Josh Spilker